In the process of studying human evolution, ancient human fossils are the most direct physical data, but most of the fossils found are incomplete, which also brings some difficulties and troubles to the research of experts. In 2011, Western media reported that two well-preserved Australopithecus fossils were found in South Africa, which was the first time in the academic world, and experts found that Australopithecus fossils were well preserved for a very rare reason... What's going on here? The following Xiaobian will reveal the secret to you:
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According to media reports, Professor Li Bojie, a British paleoanthropology research expert, has visited South Africa many times to look for the remains and fossils of ancient human life. In March 2011, Professor Li Bojie and his assistant and others arrived in South Africa again to investigate, this time preparing to go to the Malapa Cave in Johannesburg, because archaeologists had found the remains of ancient humans near the cave. Professor Li Bojie inspected the Malapa Cave for 3 days and found a relic of ancient humans, and also unearthed stone tools, wooden sticks and burning ashes.
Although the remains were successfully found, no ancient human fossils have been excavated, which also makes Professor Li Bojie feel very sorry. A few days later, Professor Li Berger decided to go deep into the cave to see if there was any serendipity. After going deep into the cave for more than 30 meters, Professor Li Bojie was blocked by a water hole about 3 meters wide, he searched for half a day and did not find a suitable passage to bypass the water hole, but at this time Professor Li Bojie suddenly thought, is there any human site under the water hole?
There is no shortage of precedents for the discovery of human sites in water caves, so Professor Li Bojie's ideas are not unique. The cave was pitch black, and even a glare flashlight could not see the bottom of the hole. In Professor Li Berger's group of experts, several young archaeologists were full of curiosity, so they decided to go down to the water cave to continue their investigation. Fortunately, the water hole had dried up, and after laying rivets on the rock, they used a safety rope to send themselves into the bottom of the water hole, and found that the water hole was more than 30 meters deep, and it was pitch black below.
The area at the bottom of the cave is about 20 square meters, and several experts have carefully searched and found some animal remains and fossils, which makes them excited. After preliminary judgment, the remains of these animals include wild boars, antelopes, and coyotes. The next day, Professor Li Bojie also successfully went down to the water cave to investigate, after three days of excavation and cleaning, Professor Li Bojie found the fossil remains of ancient apes in the calcified detritus sediment, and even the overall form was well preserved, which was very surprising.
Professor Li Berger carefully sent two ancient ape fossils out of the cave for preservation, and after more than a week of transfer, this came to the museum. In the museum, experts carefully cleaned up the ancient ape fossils, and after cleaning up the sediments, they found that there were two fossils, the most important of which was that the fossils were partially mummified before the fossils were formed, and the remains also had the same material as skin tissue on the remains. After in-depth research, experts determined that the two fossils were australopithecus, which is about 1.7 million years old.
Australopithecus belongs to the family Homoceros, which has fully adapted to walking upright and is also a representative of the late human beings that are in the process of being formed, living between 5.5 and 1.3 million years ago. As early as 1924, the first discovery of australopithecus fossils in South Africa, but not as well preserved as the two fossils found today, for a time let the major news media have also reported, causing a wide range of academic experts to discuss. Later, Professor Li Berger studied and found that one of the fossils was a female, about 20-25 years old, and the other was a male, about 5-8 years old, and Professor Li Berger took dna samples from the two for comparison, and found that they were a mother and son.
At the beginning, other experts, including Professor Li Bojie, also wondered why the mother and son of the Australopithecus were buried in the water cave together. Later, Professor Li Bojie also made a detailed investigation of the topography of the Malapa Cave where the fossils were found, he speculated that there was water in the water cave hundreds of millions of years ago, when the son (male Australopithecus) played with water by the water cave, and unfortunately fell into the water hole, so the mother (female Australopithecus) immediately jumped into the water cave to rescue the drowning son, but unfortunately the mother could not swim, and finally both of them sank into the water and became the fossils we see today. It's a sad story of australopithecus sinking to the bottom of the water, the flow of water cuts off oxygen, creating favorable conditions for the formation of intact fossils.
For paleoanthropologists, the discovery of a complete australopithecus fossil this time provides extremely rare physical information for them to study the lifestyle and physiological state of Australopithecus australopithecus, and also further improves the evolutionary process of human beings, allowing us to have more understanding of human ancestors.
Resources:
"How Ancient Apes Become Human" by Fang Zongxuan, Publisher: Hunan Education Publishing House
Wenlan Hairun Studio Editor-in-Chief Wen Xiucai, this article is written by: Special History Writer: Liu Lijiang's