Recent
There are also major archaeological discoveries in Zhaotong, Yunnan
Pond dams were discovered 6.4 million years ago
The closest to the golden snub-nosed monkey ancestor fossil
On August 7 and August 28, the Journal of Human Evolution, an authoritative international journal of anthropology, published two papers entitled "The Easternmost Representative of the Broadly Distributed (in Eurasian) Miocene Monkey Family- The Discovery of the Bentri Chinese Monkey in Zhaotong, China" and "The Oldest Colossal Calcaneus in East Asia". This is the latest result of the research on the Neogene paleontological fauna of Zhaotong co-chaired by the Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Pennsylvania State University in the United States.
Photo by Long Yongcheng, a living Yunnan golden snub-nosed monkey
The middle monkey is one of the earliest primate fossils recorded by the academic community, found more than 160 years ago in the Pikermi region near Athens, Greece, and later found in Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, Pakistan and other European, West Asian and South Asian strata dating back 8.20-7.1 million years ago, is one of the most geographically distributed non-human primate fossil representatives.
Restoration of the ancestor of the golden snub-nosed monkey found in Zhaotong Pond Dam and its ecological environment (Drawing by Mauricio Anton, courtesy of Nina G. Jablongski)
The fossil specimens of the Monkey in Zhaotong were discovered in 2009 and 2010, which is the fossil record of the species reaching the easternmost part of Eurasia and the first discovery of the genus in East Asia. The newly discovered middle monkey is a female individual weighing about 7.26-7.11 kg, which is roughly the same era as the Zhaotong ancient ape.
Rescue excavation site of Zhaotong Pond Dam
ZhaoTong Linglong mandible excavation site Yang Xin photo
Shuitangba primate mandible unearthed Wang Yi photographed
Repaired jaws of monkeys in Zhaotong
Distribution of monkeys in different Neogene periods in Eurasia (courtesy of Nina G. Jablonski)
Comparative and quantitative analysis of anatomical features showed that the middle monkey found by Zhaotong was the same species as the European discovery. For 7 million years, due to the continuous drought in southeastern Europe, and the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the formation of the Asian monsoon climate in East Asia, the environmental impact on tropical and subtropical forests has been relatively slow. Until 3-4 million years ago, the environment began to develop rapidly in the direction of dry and cold, thus preserving an environment suitable for the survival of ancient species of Neogene animals and plants and the formation of new species.
Multidisciplinary comprehensive research shows that Zhaotong Pond Dam was densely forested 6.5-6 million years ago, with open woodland and lake marsh environment, relatively warm and humid in summer and relatively dry and cold in winter. Due to the variability of its motor function, the European middle monkey can adapt to various latitudes, temperatures and rainfall environments, as well as eat fruits, leaves, nuts, seeds and other foods, so that it can migrate along the southern forest corridor for a long time, to the forest in southern East Asia widely spread "refuge" - Zhaotong to survive, and eventually evolved into some or all of the living Asian colobus monkeys, more likely the most primitive ancestors of the living golden snub-nosed monkeys.
Fossils of chinese monkeys unearthed from Zhaotong Pond Dam
Fossil mandibles of middle monkeys excavated from Zhaotong Pond Dam
Fossils of the chinese monkey femur excavated from the Zhaotong Shuitang Dam photographed by Yang Xin
Fossils of the heel bones of the middle monkey excavated from the Zhaotong Pond Dam
At the end of the last century, research institutions such as the Kunming Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences speculated that the ancestors of the Asian golden snub-nosed monkey should be similar to the paleoptera of the Middle Monkey, but paleontologists have not found fossil evidence to support it. In 2012, a study in molecular biology deduced that the earliest ancestors of golden snub-nosed monkeys should have evolved from a monkey family in Yunnan between 6.7 and 7.3 million years ago. Fossils found at the Zhaotong Pond Dam confirm the above inference.
The study was co-chaired by the Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Pennsylvania State University, and was co-authored by Ji Xueping, Professor Nina G. Jablongski, and Professor Dionisios Youlatos, respectively, as the first author and co-corresponding author. The research team will also look for more late evolutionary "missing loops" to further track the coupling of environmental change and biological evolution in Asia.
Zhaotong Zhaoyang District Pond Dam
A large number of fauna from key periods are preserved
Ancestral representatives of a variety of living animals may be found
And these animals
Links to Europe, Southeast Asia, North America, and North China
▍Source: Yunnan Publishing, Zhaotong Daily, except for the signature, the rest of the pictures are provided by the Yunnan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology
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