Brief introduction
Yuanmou people, because the place of discovery is on a hill northwest of Shangnabang Village in Yuanmou County, Yunnan, was named "Yuanmou Zhiliren", known in English as sculpture: Homo erectus Yuan mouensis, commonly known as "Yuanmou people". The word "Yuanmou" comes from the Dai language and means "horse".
Metamount
The fossil teeth of Yuanmou people were found in 1965 on the "May Day" festival in Shangnabang Village, Yuanmou County, Yunnan Province, which is known as the "hometown of Yuanmou people". In 1976, according to paleomagnetic methods, the living age is about 1.7 million years ago, and the gap is no more than 100,000 years (some scholars believe that its age should not exceed 730,000 years, that is, the gap may be 600,000 to 500,000 years or later).
Fossil teeth
About 1.7 million years ago, in the area of Yuanmou County, Yunnan Province, hazelnut and lush forests are a subtropical grassland and forest where remnants of the Tertiary stage such as the antlered deer claw hoof survive and reproduce here. Some time later, early Pleistocene animals such as the Sang's hyena, the Yunnan horse, and the Shanxi axis deer appeared in this grassland and forest. Most of them are herbivorous beasts. In order to survive, the Yuanmou people used crude stone tools to hunt them. Based on the excavations of two teeth, stone tools, charcoal chips, and subsequent excavations in the same layer at the same site, a small amount of stonework, a large amount of carbon chips and mammal fossils have been excavated, proving that they were primitive humans who could make tools and use fire.
Discovery and characterization
Fossils of The Yuanmou man were found on May 1, 1965 in a brown clay layer on a small hill northwest of the village of Shangnabang.
The Yuanmou people found that the land was on the edge of the Yuanmou Basin, and the Cenozoic strata in the Yuanmou Basin were well exposed and there were many fossils. The fossils were found in the accumulation of rivers and lakes, which were divided into 4 sections and 28 layers from bottom to top, and the fossils of Yuanmou people were in the 25th layer of the 4th section. The lithology is mainly tan and brownish yellow sand and gravel layers, and silt sub-clay and clay soil layers. The small hill where the fossil of Yuanmou Man is located is surrounded by a gully, 16 meters from east to west, 20 meters from north to south, an area of about 320 square meters, and the tooth fossil is about 4 meters above the ground, which can rule out the possibility that the fossil is rushed from elsewhere.
At the beginning of 1965, in order to cooperate with the construction of the Panzhihua area of Sichuan and the Chengkun Railway, the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences sent Zhao Guoguang, Qian Fang, Pu Qingyu and other scholars to study the new tectonic movement in southwest China, and chose the Yuanmou Basin as the research focus. In early April, scholars began work near the village of Nabang and found many fossils and geological phenomena. On May 1, Qian Fang and others went to the northwest of Shangnabang Village to look for fossils, which had been washed away by rain for a long time, and the fine sand and clay soil were mostly washed away, and it was easy to dig out fossils. At about 5 p.m., Qian Fang found two fossils of suspected human teeth, more than ten centimeters apart. A crown of teeth is exposed to the surface, and the roots of the teeth are in the soil. The other is all in the soil. Also unearthed were the Yunnan horse tooth fossils, rodent mandibles, and other fossil fragments. The next day, the scholars came to the site to continue excavations, trying to find fossil materials from other ancient apes, but did not harvest. In September, after completing a field expedition, the scholars brought the fossil teeth back to Beijing for expert identification.
In February 1972, after the identification of Hu Chengzhi of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, this discovery was published, and according to the place where the fossil was found, it was named "Homo erectus, a new subspecies of Yuan", referred to as "Yuanmou Homo erectus". Hu Chengzhi published an article entitled "Fossil Ape Man's Teeth Discovered by Yuanmou in Yunnan" in the First Issue of geological journal in 1973. Xinhua News Agency, People's Daily and others also reported on this.
From October to December 1973, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences used archaeological methods to conduct large-scale systematic excavations of the small hill where the fossils of Yuanmou people are located. The excavations produced detailed stratigraphic profiles of the site and found artificially made stone tools and charcoal chips, mammal fossils, mollusk fossils and pollen fossils in the nearby strata, but no new human fossils were found. This excavation determined the sedimentary nature of the stratum in which the fossils of Yuanmou man were located, and based on the sediment situation of the formation and the fossils of associated animals, it was claimed that the age of Yuanmou man was located in the Early Pleistocene.
In 1973 and 1974, Qian Fang and others went to the Yuanmou Basin again to investigate and collected ancient geomagnetic specimens of the Yuanmou Group. On July 25, 1976, the absolute geological age of paleomagnetism was determined to be about 1.7 million years ago. (Controversy that followed)
In 1983, Du Yaoxi of the China History Museum made a periodic summary of the historical status of the Yuanmou people, believing that the Yuanmou people had a special status in the transition stage from southern apes to Homo erectus in the early stage of human society; the Yuanmou people provided important clues for the formation of the yellow race; the stone tool culture of the Yuanmou people was unique, and the time to learn to use fire was relatively early. In short, the study of Early Chinese History is of great significance.
fossil
Fossil teeth of Yuanmou people (hand-painted)
The fossils of Yuanmou man include two upper medial incisors, one on the left and one on the right, belonging to the same adult male individual. It is deeply petrified, gray in color, its crown is well preserved, the ends of the tooth roots are mutilated, and there are small cracks on the surface, and the cracks are filled with brown clay. The left incisor is 11.4 mm long, 8.1 mm wide and 11.2 mm high. The right incisor is 11.5 mm long, 8.6 mm wide and 11.1 mm high. Its cutting edges are worn before death.
After study, it was found that these two teeth were very stout, shovel-shaped, and relatively flat. The crown bite surface is worn to a great extent, such as a knife edge. The base of the crown is thick, the ends are extended, the lip surface is relatively flat, and the pattern of the tongue surface is very complex, slightly triangular. The nodules at the base of the tongue are raised, extending towards the crown of the teeth and splitting into three finger-like processes, with a long central finger process and concentrated finger-like processes arranged in a semi-surface near the outer side. The concave surface in the middle of the tongue is rough and has a well-developed spade-shaped tooth socket. On the surface of the tongue , along the edges of the inner and outer sides , there are pleated convex edges , of which the outer ones are more raised than the inner ones. The tooth root is broken, and according to the remnants of the left half, it should be quite stout. Has a distinctly original nature.
The characteristics of the fossil teeth of Yuanmou people are: thick teeth, crown expansion index of 141.9; flattening of the lip surface of the crown; developed bottom nodules, accounting for about half of the tongue surface; the tongue surface has a developed shovel-shaped tooth socket; and the cross-section of the tongue root neck is oval.
Compared with large apes (Pongidae, such as gorillas), fossil teeth of Yuanmou people have similarities, such as the fan-shaped crown of teeth and the developed bottom nodules, which account for about half of the tongue surface, but other aspects are very different. There are few similarities to gigantopithecus. In contrast to Australopithecus , australopithecus lacks developed bottom nodules , incisors are underdeveloped , and have thicker roots. Therefore, the Yuanmou people cannot be apes.
Compared with modern people, some yellow peoples have a tongue shovel shape, similar to the Yuanmou people. However, the base of the modern human tongue is obviously contracted, the structure is greatly simplified, and the bottom nodule is greatly weakened, so the tooth fossils cannot be late humans.
The incisors of Yuanmou and Beijingers are the most similar, but there are also differences. Similarities include proximity of size, thickness at the base of the crown, strong bulges in the base of the nodules, sloped forward extensions, and division into several finger-like processes. The concave surface in the middle of the tongue has convex edges on both sides. The differences are: the crown of the Teeth of the Yuanmou people is slightly triangular, and the Beijingers are slightly rectangular; the lip surface of the Yuanmou people's teeth crown is raised; the concave surface of the middle of the tongue of the Yuanmou people's tooth crown is rough, and the Beijingers are flat; and the fingery protrusions of the tongue of the Yuanmou and the Beijingers are also quite different. In comparison, The Metamorphus should be a separate homo erectus subspecies and more primitive, representing the transition from Australopithecus to Homo erectus.
In 1984, a team from the Beijing Museum of Natural History found a section of human tibia in Guojiabao, 250 meters away from the origin of the Yuanmou human fossil, and believed that it belonged to the Yuanmou people. This is a section of the left tibia, except for the missing upper and lower ends, the backbone is fairly well preserved, 227.0 mm long, the midpoint shaft circumference is 78.0 mm, and the transverse diameter is 17.0 mm. The bones are weak and should belong to an individual girl. It has the following characteristics: it is obviously partial tibia, the anterior edge of the backbone is obviously rounded and blunt, there is a shallow interosseous ridge, and the bones of the backbone are thicker and the medullary cavity is smaller. In summary, the tibia belt of the Yuanmou people has many characteristics of capable people, which are different from modern people.
Stone tools and their culture
A stone tool model of the Yuanmou people, collected in the Shanghai Museum of Natural History
Yuanmouren scraper (hand-painted)
Yuanmouren pointed instrument (hand-drawn)
The cultural relics of the Yuanmou people mainly include stone tools, animal bones with artificial traces, and traces of suspected artificial fire.
From 1973 to 1975, seven stone tools were excavated in the strata where fossils of Yuanmou people were found. Four of the better ones are scrapers, three of which are made of quartzite. One is a two-edged scraper, made of stone chips, which may have been repaired by smashing from the manual processing marks on the stone tools. The second is a compound blade scraper, made of small stones, with processing marks on three sides, slightly rectangular, and should be processed in a complex direction. The third is an end-edge scraper, also made of small stones, and is also processed in a complex direction.
In addition, ten stone tools were collected at the same site, three of which were in better condition, and it is speculated that they were washed out of the surface by rainwater, and they are also regarded as stone tools of the Yuanmou people. Of the three stone tools collected: one is a stone core, fusiform, 90 mm long, with a single tabletop. The second is a stone shard, the raw material of which is red sandstone, which is slightly less than the width, and the strike point is scattered. The third is a sharp device, made of quartz rock pieces, processed on one side on the left side and processed on both sides on the right side, intersecting in the central axis, and is a positive pointed device.
It is difficult to infer the stone tool processing technology of the Yuanmou people from these stone tools alone. However, the following can be known: the Yuanmou people will use the pounding method to manufacture and repair stone tools, will make scrapers and sharpeners, and the size of the tools is not large.
In the fossil layer of Yuanmou man, animal bones with artificial traces were found. One of them, 8.4 meters long, 3.1 meters wide and 2.6 centimeters thick, has cutting marks at both ends or is related to bone organs.
Many charcoal chips have also been found in the formations where fossils of Yuanmou were found, often associated with mammalian fossils. Among them, the larger one is up to 15 mm in diameter and the smaller one is about 1 mm, and the upper and lower boundaries are about 3 meters, divided into three layers, and are spaced 30-50 cm apart from each other. Several black bones were also found on the same level, which were identified as possibly burned. These may be traces of the use of fire by the Yuanmou people.
After years of excavation, a total of 35 stone artifacts have been found, of which 21 specimens are better.
Academic controversy
Chronology
There are different views in the academic community about the geological age and absolute age of the Fossils of Yuanmou Man.
One view is that it belongs to the late Early Pleistocene, around 1.7 million years ago. In 1976, the Institute of Geomechanics of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences used paleomagnetic methods to believe that the formation of the Yuanmou Group spanned the polar worlds of Matuyama and Gauss, and the fossils of the Yuanmou people were determined to be 1.7 million ± 100,000 years ago. And according to the results of the paleomagnetic calculation of the Yuanmou group, it is believed that the geomagnetic polarity chronology needs to be updated, and the age of the Yuanmou people is between 1.63 million and 1.64 million years, and the error range is not more than 100,000 years. In 1998, Huang Peihua used the fossil teeth of mammals excavated from the same formation and joined hands with the Quaternary Dating Research Center of the Australian National University to determine the age of 1.6 million to 1.1 million years by electron spin resonance method, supporting that Yuanmou people belong to early Homo erectus. In 2005, based on the results of various dating methods, Qian Fang synthesized fossil research and stratigraphic analysis, and concluded that the era of Yuan mouren was early Pleistocene, 1.7 million years ago.
Another view is that it belongs to the Middle Pleistocene. According to the fossil layer of the Yuanmou Group, the proportion of extinct species in the fourth stage is higher than that of the extinct species in the third stage, which is not common sense, and it is speculated that the stratigraphy is disordered by the influence of geological movement. Moreover, the evidence of Ma Dingnian in Yunnan alone is insufficient, and the results of paleomagnetic dating need to be reinterpreted. Combining various materials, the paleomagnetic dating of the fossils of Yuanmou people should not exceed 730,000 years, and may be 600,000 to 500,000 years old or later. This theory was refuted by Qian Fang, believing that its stratigraphic division was different and the fossil identification was wrong.
Culturally, the study of the stone tools found shows that the Yuanmou people lived in the early Paleolithic period.
If the age of the Yuanmou people is positioned as 1.7 million years ago, then the Yuanmou people are the earliest known ancient humans in China. Since this was the original chronological positioning of the Yuanmou people, some textbooks, popular reading materials and encyclopedias hold this view. If the age of the Yuanmou people is positioned as about 600,000 years, then the age of the Yuanmou people will be later than the Lantian people of Gongwangling.
Living environment
The living environment of the Yuanmou people is speculated through the coexistence of animal and plant fossils. The animal fossils in the third and fourth stages of the Yuanmou man strata are generally called the Yuanmou fauna, and are considered to be animals that coexist with the Yuanmou people.
Fossil mammals that symbiotic with the Yuanmou people include the hystrix subcristata, the canis yuanmouensis, the Yunnan horse (Equus yunnanensis), and the clawed hoofed beast (Nestoritherium sp. ), more than 30 species of Chinese rhinoceros sinensis, Shanxi axis deer (Axis shansius) and so on. Most of them are extinct species, some are remnants of the Pliocene, and most are common species in the Early Pleistocene. If you look at the living environment, Yunnan horses and others live in grasslands, small chamois (Metacervulus attennatus), lake chamois (Muntiacus lacustris) and other animals live in tropical rainforests, bamboo rats (Rhizonmys sp.), compound-toothed pika (Ochotonoides complicidens) and other animals live in the bush, Mud River Bay saber-toothed tiger (Megaterium nihowanensin) and others live in the forest.
According to the analysis of plant spore pollen, the trees are mainly pine (Pinus) plants, as well as alder (Alnus), elm (Ulmus) and so on. Herbs are more numerous. The spore powder combination of the layer where the Yuanmou people are located, the pine genus accounts for 33.3%, the alder genus accounts for 13%, and the herbaceous plants account for 40%.
In summary, the Yuanmou people live in a forest-grassland environment, which is relatively mild and humid, and cooler than now. There are mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forests growing in the mountains, overgrown grasses in the foothill plains, and small-leaf broad-leaved forests at the water's edge, where various animals are infested. The Yuanmou people may have lived a mobile life along the banks of rivers or lakes.
Subsequent discoveries
New results
Investigation and excavation of the "earliest humans" and their close relatives in China. In-depth study of the fossils obtained to solve the problem of the origin and evolution of early humans, thus contributing to clarifying the dispute between time and place of human origin today.
Yunnan Yuanmou is the focus of this climbing project. Previous preliminary studies by relevant scholars have shown that there seem to be two types of teeth in the yuanmou ancient ape. Whether these two types represent differences between the two biological species, or simply differences in sex, is not clear. This greatly hinders the understanding of the overall characteristics of yuanmou ancient apes, and even the status of the entire Yunnan ancient ape in the evolutionary classification and its role in the origin and evolution of early humans. After the launch of the climbing project, the field excavations have obtained a new batch of fossil materials. Among the ancient ape fossils discovered by Yuanmou, tooth fossils account for the vast majority. On the basis of these findings, the research on the teeth of the yuanmou ancient ape organized by the special organization has also made substantial progress. In 1999, the 23rd issue of "Scientific Bulletin" published the research results of Liu Wu and others on the measurement and statistical analysis of the teeth of Yuanmou ancient apes.
The research materials of this new achievement include all 1266 tooth fossils excavated and collected in the Yuanmou Basin from the first discovery of ancient ape fossils in 1986 to the end of 1998. Due to the large sample size, the data distribution range of each measurement item can be accurately reflected. Liu Wu et al. used statistical analysis methods such as histogram and normal curve analysis, bivariate two-dimensional coordinate distribution, factor analysis, coefficient of variation analysis, and canine tooth area proportion coefficient analysis to test the distribution law of the tooth size and size of Yuanmou ancient ape, and the relationship between Yuanmou ancient ape and living ape, Kaiyuan and Lufeng ancient ape. This is the first time since the discovery of the fossil of Yuanmou ancient ape that a more systematic and standardized statistical analysis of teeth has been carried out. Histogram, two-dimensional coordinate distribution and factor analysis found that the tooth size of Yuanmou ancient ape had a large range of variation distribution, and most of the teeth showed two size types with obvious size. However, whether this variation in the size of the teeth of the Yuanmou ancient ape is beyond the range of variation within the single species of Kaiyuan, Lufeng ancient ape and living great ape is a question that needs further clarification. This question concerns whether the fossils of ancient apes found in Yuanmou represent one biological species or two biological species. To this end, the coefficient of variation analysis method was used to compare the degree of tooth size variation of Yuanmou ancient ape and the degree of tooth variation of other Miocene paleontine apes and living great apes. In the calculated coefficient of variation of the teeth of the upper and lower jaws of the Yuanmou ancient ape, except for the high coefficient of variation of the upper and lower jaw canine teeth, the coefficient of variation of the remaining teeth of the Yuanmou ancient ape is located in or close to the distribution range of the tooth size variation coefficient of Lufeng ancient ape and the living ape. Since the academic community generally tends to think that the Lufeng ancient ape discovered so far in 1987 represents a species (Wu Rukang, 1987), the comparative analysis of the coefficient of variation in this paper strongly suggests that the variation presented by the tooth size of the Yuanmou ancient ape is likely to have not yet reached the range of interspecific variation.
Ancient ape fossils
Since the discovery of forest ancient ape tooth fossils in Kaiyuan, Yunnan in 1956, ancient ape fossils have been found in Lufeng, Yuanmou and Baoshan in Yunnan. The evolutionary taxonomic status and interrelationship of these apes has been of concern to the academic community. The yuanmou ancient ape tooth measurement data was compared with the published Lufeng and Kai ancient ape tooth measurements in an attempt to provide some evidence for the size of the teeth to solve this problem. From the distribution of the tooth area data of Yuanmou and Lufeng and Kaiyuan apes, the tooth sizes of the ancient apes found in these three locations in Yunnan are very close, and the teeth of the yuanmou ancient apes and the ancient apes are closer to each other in terms of tooth data. The tooth size of Lufeng ancient ape is slightly larger than that of Yuanmou ancient ape and Kai ancient ape.
Through the above analysis, it can be seen that this study reveals the distribution of the tooth size of the Yuanmou ancient ape, and also compares some specific characteristics with the Lufeng ancient ape, the Ancient Ape and the living great ape found in Yunnan.
(i) It was determined that the ancient ape found in Yuanmou represented a biological species
In the study of early humans and fossil higher primates, especially tertiary paleontine apes, one of the points of debate is whether the differences in morphological characteristics and measurement data presented by fossil materials found at the same site are taxonomic differences or sex differences. In the early stages of research on the fossils of Lufeng ancient apes, it was suggested that the fossils found in Lufeng may represent two species. In subsequent studies, most scholars have gradually tended to support that Lufeng ape is a biological species composed of individuals with high sex differences in morphological characteristics, and in this process, the analysis and study of tooth measurement data have played an important role. In the early study of the fossils of Yuanmou ancient apes, it has been noted that the tooth fossils of Yuanmou ancient apes can be divided into two types according to size and morphology, and proposed that these two types are similar to the females and males of Lufeng ancient apes, but at the same time, it is also pointed out that there are obvious differences between the large and small types of Yuanmou ancient apes, some of which cannot be explained by gender differences, and may represent two different types of ancient apes (Pilbeam, 1997). The analysis of the tooth measurement data of Yuanmou ancient ape showed that most of the teeth showed a bimodal distribution phenomenon of two size types, and the range of tooth data variation was large. The comparative results of the coefficients of variation also show that the coefficients of variation of the vast majority of the teeth measurement data of Yuanmou ancient apes are located at or close to the distribution range of the tooth size coefficients of Lufeng ancient apes and living great apes representing a single biological species. Therefore, the author proposes that the ancient ape found in Yuanmou represents a biological species, and the two types of mutations in tooth size and size are a reflection of the sex dichondry, indicating that the ancient ape living in the Yuanmou area at that time was composed of a population with significant sex differences in morphological characteristics.
(2) The relationship between Yuanmou ancient apes and living large apes and Kaiyuan and Lufeng ancient apes was discussed
Since the discovery of ancient ape tooth fossils in Xiaolongtan, Kaiyuan, Yunnan in 1956, ancient ape fossils have been found in Lufeng, Yuanmou and Baoshan in Yunnan. The relationship between these ancient apes, their evolutionary systematic status, and their role in the origin of early humans have been the focus of academic attention in China and abroad. Among them, Yuanmou ancient ape is the most abundant tertiary ancient ape fossil material found in China and even In Asia after Lufeng. In the past ten years, relevant scholars have done some research on this batch of materials and discussed the above issues. But in fact, so far, many of the problems involving the taxonomy and evolutionary status of meta-apes are not very clear, and clarifying and solving these problems requires a lot of basic research work. In 1999, Liu Wu et al. compared the measurement data of the teeth of the ancient apes found in Yuanmou with the similarities and differences in the tooth sizes of the living apes and the kaiyuan and Lufeng apes, and tried to explore the relationship between the yuanmou ancient apes and the living apes and the kaiyuan and Lufeng apes. The results suggest that yuanmou ancient apes are close to Kaiyuan and Lufeng ancient apes in systematic classification, but farther away from living great apes such as gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans. In the analysis of the relationship between Yuanmou ancient apes and Kaiyuan and Lufeng ancient apes, it is suggested that the teeth of Yuanmou, Lufeng and Kaiyuan are relatively close, of which Yuanmou and Kaiyuan are closer. Based on the statistical analysis and comparison results of the tooth measurement data of Yuanmou ancient apes, Liu Wu et al. believe that the ancient apes living in different regions of Yunnan in the Miocene may be relatively close in systematic classification.
This study is the most comprehensive and detailed basic data accumulation work carried out in the more than ten years since the discovery of the Yuanmou ancient ape. This work will undoubtedly play an important role in future studies to thoroughly clarify the systematic status of ancient apes found in Yunnan, China, and their role in the origin of early humans.
Heritage conservation
In 1982, the State Council of China announced the Yuanmou Ape Man Site as the second batch of national key cultural relics protection units, with a protected area of about 768.15 mu.
At present, there is a Yuanmou ren exhibition hall to preserve the relevant cultural relics and sites of yuanmou people, located in Longchuan Street, Yuanmou County, covering an area of 6 acres, construction began in 1987, opened on September 25, 1989, the collection of cultural relics more than 1,000 pieces. The exhibition hall is divided into three parts: "Human Origin", "Yuanmou Ancient Ape" and "Yuanmou Prehistoric Culture", in addition to displaying the knowledge of cultural relics related to the Yuanmou people, there are also some other ancient ape ancient human relics found in Yunnan. The exhibition hall is mainly guided by dialectical materialism and historical materialism, and combines exhibits to illustrate "the evolution of human beings from apes" and "the process of human social development". In 2009, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China announced the Yuanmouren Exhibition Hall as a national third-level museum.
Site
International impact
February 22, 1972
On the special day of US President Nixon's visit to China, Xinhua News Agency released the major news of the discovery of the "Yuanmou people" to the world, and the People's Daily reported: "This is another important discovery after the Discovery of the Peking Ape and the Lantian Ape Man in Northern China, and has important scientific value for further study of paleo-humans and the Quaternary geology of southwest China." "This major discovery has attracted widespread attention from academic circles at home and abroad.
Back in 1903
From the winter of 1926 to the beginning of 1927, the Central Asian expedition of the American Museum of Natural History was investigated in Yunnan, and Mr. Gran jie found skeletal fossils such as horses, elephants, and rhinos in the east side of the Yuanmou Basin, in the south ten miles of Majie, according to the fossils, the fauna and fossil production stratigraphic age were placed in the Early Pleistocene, and had a premonition that it was possible to retain the remains of early human fossils.
1926-1940
Many famous geologists and paleontologists at home and abroad, such as Nelson, Gran Jie, Kleetner, Bian Meinian, Colbert, Hu Chengzhi, Pei Wenzhong, Qiu Zhanxiang, Zhou Mingzhen, etc., have conducted investigations and studies on the Quaternary strata of the Yuanmou Basin and the Yuanmou Formation, and found glacial remains in Yuanmou during the investigation, which were determined to be the only representative early Pleistocene geology in South China. During the expedition, many fossil sites were also found, called the "Horse Street Horse Fossil Layer".
Spring 1976
At the "Report meeting to commemorate the centenary of the writing of Engels's "The Role of Labor in the Process of Transformation from Ape to Man", Qian Fang and Ma Xinghua, on behalf of the Institute of Geomechanics of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, announced that the age of the Yuanmou people measured by the paleomagnetic method was 1.7 ±100,000 years; Cheng Guoliang, on behalf of the Institute of Geology, announced: The survival age of the Yuanmou people was 1.63-1.64 million years by the same method; Liu Dongsheng, on behalf of the Guiyang Institute of Geochemistry, made a speech: The data on the survival age of the Yuanmou people measured by the Institute are basically the same as the results of the above units. At the end of July of the same year, Xinhua News Agency and People's Daily published the major news that the "Yuanmou people" lived in about 1.7 million years ago, and the discovery of the "Yuanmou people" pushed forward the history of the Chinese category by more than 1 million years, indicating that Yunnan in the Yangtze River Basin is the key and core area of human origin and development, effectively challenging the theory of the African centrism of human origin, and providing strong scientific support for the polycentrism of human origin and development. As the beginning of Chinese history, it is written on the first page of Chinese history textbooks.