overview
Homo erectus yuanmouensis, also known as homo erectus man, is a fossil of Homo erectus found in China. Found in 1965 near the village of Nabang in Yuanmou, Yunnan, with a total of two left and right incisors. Later, stone tools, charcoal chips, and animal limb bones with artificial traces were also found.
The Yuanmou people, who are about 1.7 million years old this year, belong to the paleo-humans of the early Paleolithic age, which is obtained by measuring the main body of fossil strata and fauna. Later, through the re-determination of paleomagnetic specimens, the dating of the Yuanmou people has been revised to 500,000-600,000 years ago, that is, the middle Pleistocene. [1] It may live in subtropical-forest environments.
The Yuanmou people belong to Homo erectus, and the contemporary East Asians belong to Homo sapiens, and whether there is a kinship between the two is still inconclusive.
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. [2]
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. [3]
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. [4]
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) [5]
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. [6]
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. [7]
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 those of the internal test. The tooth root is broken, and according to the remnants of the left half, it should be quite stout. Has a distinctly original nature. [8]
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. [9]
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. [10]
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. [11]
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. [12]
In 1984, a team from the Beijing Museum of Natural History found a section of human tibia in Guo Jiabao, 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 shin type; the anterior edge of the backbone is obviously rounded and blunt; there is a shallow interosseous ridge; the bone bibi of the backbone is 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. [13]
Stone tools and their culture
A stone tool model of the Yuanmou people, collected in the Shanghai Museum of Natural History
Yuanmouren scraper
Yuanmouren pointed device
The cultural relics of the Yuanmou people mainly include stone tools, animal bones with artificial traces, and suspected artificial fire traces.
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, and three of them 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. [14]
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. [15]
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. [16]
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. [17]
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. [18]
After years of excavation, a total of 35 stone artifacts have been found, of which 21 specimens are better. [19]
Chronology
There are different views in the academic community regarding 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. [20] Based on the results of paleomagnetic calculations 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 margin of error is not more than 100,000 years. [21] In 1998, Huang Peihua used fossil mammalian tooth fossils 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 to 1.1 million years by electron spin resonance method, supporting yuanmou people as early Homo erectus. [22] In 2005, based on the results of various dating methods, Qian Fang synthesized fossil studies and stratigraphic analysis, and concluded that the era of Yuan Mouren was early Pleistocene, 1.7 million years ago. [23]
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. [24] This theory was refuted by Qian Fang, who believed that its stratigraphic divisions were different and that the fossil identification was wrong. [25]
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. [26] 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 that of the Gongwangling Lantian people. [27]
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 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 living in tropical rainforests, bamboo rats (Rhizonmys sp. Animals such as the compound-toothed pika (Ochotonoides complicidens) live in the bushes, and the Saber-toothed tiger (Megaterium nihowanensin) lives in the forest. [28]
According to the analysis of plant 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%. [29]
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. [30]
Heritage conservation
Metamorato Ape Man Ruins
National key cultural relics protection unit
Promulgated by the State Council of the People's Republic of China
Location: Yuanmou County, Yunnan Province
Category: Ancient ruins
Age : Paleolithic
Number: 2-46
Login: 1982
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. [31]
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". [32] In 2009, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China announced the Yuanmouren Exhibition Hall as a national tertiary museum. [33]
The current conservation status of the Fossils of The Yuanmou people is not good, the scientific expedition excavations are in a state of stagnation, and the investment is almost non-existent. The site belongs to the wilderness site, the area is very large, and the difficulty of protection is not small. Years of rain erosion and soil erosion may wash away artifacts underground, garbage is everywhere, and local villagers hope to develop the land into farmland and grow grapes. The local heritage department intends to re-excavate the site or carry out tourism development, but the funds are lost and no business is willing to invest. In fact, there are no fossil specimens of Yuanmou people in the Yuanmou people exhibition hall in the county. [34]