Source: Yunnan Net
Fossils of the Zhaotong ancient elephant group
In the past month, the whereabouts of the wild elephants in the north and south of Yunnan have touched the hearts of hundreds of millions of netizens at home and abroad: "Every day we have to 'suck the elephants in the clouds'" and "Every time I see the four words 'people and elephants are safe', I will show 'aunt smile'".
As we all know, this "broken nose family" from Xishuangbanna belongs to the Asian elephant. The existing elephants in the world mainly include two major categories: Asian elephants and African elephants. However, if you stretch the timeline and count the years in tens of millions, you will find that there were more than 400 species of elephants on the earth. So, how many species of elephants once lived in Yunnan?
With questions, the reporter recently interviewed the Yunnan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology to further understand the types and "footprints" of elephants in Yunnan. Ji Xueping, a researcher at the institute, said: "According to incomplete statistics, Yunnan was once the habitat of about 25 kinds of ancient elephants. ”
Archaeologists excavate fossils of three elephants trapped in a swamp
Yunnan is the refuge of ancient elephants
In the past 30 years, Ji Xueping's team has led a multidisciplinary team to devote himself to the study of paleontology and paleoanthropology, and nearly 100 research papers have been published in international and domestic journals.
The results show that Yunnan is the origin of many vertebrates and a "refuge" for many ancient species, including Asian elephants.
Why is it called a "refuge"? Ji Xueping combined the ice age theory to give the answer: "Due to the interaction between astronomy and the earth, every other cycle, the earth will complete an alternation of warm period and ice age. The arrival of the Ice Age will cause ancient elephants to migrate to places with mild climates and lush vegetation. Judging from the fossils that have been excavated, the ancient elephants have repeatedly chosen Yunnan during their migration. ”
Zhaotong saber-toothed elephant male and female fossils
12 million years ago, there were elephants in Yunnan
"Ancient elephants are widely distributed in Yunnan, and many ancient elephants are named for the first time in Yunnan." Ji Xueping introduced, while pulling out a timeline on the paper: "About 12 million years ago, the present-day Kaiyuan Xiaolongtan lived with broad-toothed ridged ridged tooth elephants, Qingyi yoke tooth elephants, and Xiaolongtan embedded tooth elephants; about 8 million years ago, the Lufeng area lived with Lufeng yoke elephants, inlaid tooth elephants, etc.; about 720 to 8.2 million years ago, the present-day Yuanmou area lived bamboo shed yoke elephants, Xiaohe four-sided tooth elephants, Jiang Yi sword prisms, Chinese mastodons, Banguo ridge prisms, primitive saber-tooth elephants, etc.; about 650 to 6 million years ago, In the present-day Zhaotong area, there are Zhaotong saber-toothed elephants, first-middle Chinese mastodons, jagged inlaid tooth elephants, South China beaked elephants, Qingyi yoke tooth elephants, Chinese four-sided tooth elephants, etc.; about 6 million years ago, the present-day Baoshan area lived Baoshan saber-tooth elephants, Chinese mastodons, Changning saber-tooth elephants, and the Kunming Basin lived zhaotong saber-tooth elephants. ”
Zhaotong saber-toothed elephant male skull
With the refinement of the timeline, 20 ancient elephant names have been listed. So, when and why did these ancient elephants disappear into the long river of history? Ji Xueping replied: "About 6 million years ago, the global climate became dry and cold, and the variety and number of fauna in Yunnan were greatly reduced. However , primitive saber-toothed elephants ( equivalent to The Zhaotong saber-toothed elephants or Shi 's saber-toothed elephants ) and inlaid toothed elephants survived in the Yuanmou Basin. About 1.7 million years ago, new groups of saber-toothed elephants appeared, namely yuanmou saber-toothed elephants, elephant-like saber-toothed elephants, etc. During the same period, the present-day Yongren lived the pre-Oriental saber-toothed elephant and the Yongren inlaid tooth elephant. Since then, the species and number of elephants have been greatly reduced, leaving only the oriental saber-toothed elephant to coexist with ancient humans and giant pandas and other animals for a long time, which lasted to about 20,000 to 30,000 years ago in southern China, and some saber-toothed elephants moved south to Southeast Asia, and the geographical isolation of the island made its body dwarfized, and its height was reduced to about 1.5 meters. The saber-toothed elephants of staple leaves were unable to adapt to changes in their habitat and eventually became extinct around 10,000 years ago. ”
Zhaotong and Fumin have Fossils of Asian Elephants
When did the Asian elephants, which attracted much attention, appear in Yunnan?
Elephant fossils found in Zhaotong
Ji Xueping introduced: "Asian elephant fossils were widely found in the middle and late Pleistocene (780,000 years ago) strata in South China, and also existed widely in the southern part of the Yellow River Basin, coexisting with the eastern saber-toothed elephant for a long time. Yunnan has only a few fossil records of ancient Asian elephants and Asian elephants in a few locations such as Zhaotong and Fumin. Since ancient times, Asian elephants have been able to reproduce because they are more adapted to a variety of plant food resources and diverse habitats. However, due to the dual causes of climate change and human activities, Asian elephants have gradually retreated southward and now only live in the tropical subtropical forests below 1,000 meters above sea level in Xishuangbanna, Pu'er and Lincang, Yunnan. ”
Meta-saber-toothed elephant tooth fossils
Ji Xueping said: "Due to the incompleteness of fossils, the classification and naming of ancient elephants is often controversial among paleontologists, but according to incomplete statistics, Yunnan was once the destination of about 25 or more ancient elephants, and is the region with the richest diversity of ancient elephants in Eurasia." ”
Yunnan Network reporter Bi Peng Yunnan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology provided a picture