Peking Ape Man extinct by hyenas?
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▲ Peking man skull fossil
In 1927, Mr. Pei Wenzhong found the fossil skull of the Beijing ape man in Fangshan Zhoukoudian, which shook the world for a while. Peking Ape Man has the characteristics of both humans and ancient apes, and biologists around the world rejoice in finding the missing ring between man and ape.
▲ Rethinking diagram - Darwin happily appeared in his original form
The discovery of the Peking Ape Man proves that at least half a million years ago, Homo erectus existed in the Beijing area, and they already had the characteristics of human making and using tools, and lived and multiplied on this land.
However, in recent years, the top anthropologists have put forward a theory - the Peking ape man, and even the earlier discovered Javan ape man, etc., although they belong to Homo erectus, but are not the ancestors of today's Chinese, they have withdrawn from the stage of history after a while, the real modern people have a common ancestor - everyone is related to an old grandmother named "Eve" in Africa 70,000 or 80,000 years ago, it can be inferred that the tribe of this old grandmother came out of Africa and gradually spread to various continents. Humanity on all continents today was formed.
Scientists assert that there is DNA evidence to illustrate the problem.
Is this jaw-dropping conclusion credible? Aren't Peking Ape Men a direct ancestor of Chinese? Judging from the excavation work at the Zhoukoudian site, there is a real possibility that the Peking ape man is likely to be extinct from hyenas.
It turned out that in the cave where the Peking ape man was found on The Keel Mountain of Zhoukoudian, not only the fossils of the ape man were found, but also a large number of fossils of other animals, such as the swollen bone deer and the Ge's spotted deer, as well as a number of birds. These animal fossils often bear traces of fire roasting, which is considered proof that Peking Ape Man used it as food.
▲ Swollen bone deer antler fossil, it is likely to be because of such a cumbersome big horn does not move, reduced to the food of the Beijing ape man, amazingly, such a large horn, the swollen bone deer can actually grow out within a year, the year fell off, the next year longer!
However, there is also a class of animal fossils that are different from this: hyenas. In the cave where the Beijing ape man once lived, a large number of fossils of hyenas have been found. Interestingly, a large number of fossils of hyena feces were also found.
Ancient ape men did not have the ability to domesticate hyenas (nor do non-zoo keepers today), suggesting that hyenas once lived in ape-man caves for a long time and were the owners of the place. Even more frightening is the discovery of fossilized skulls and limbs of Peking apes, with traces of hyena bites, indicating that at least some apes were eaten as prey by hyenas. All skull fossils do not have facial bones, which are speculated to be the work of hyenas, but it cannot be judged whether they were injured before they were born or eaten after death.
hyena
The hyena, also known as the "Hai yi na", is a ferocious carnivore who often competes with lions for prey and is found in many parts of Africa. Interestingly, hyenas, despite their name, are actually felines.
There are no hyenas in China today, but in the era when the Beijing ape man lived, there was a huge hyena in North China, which was the prehistoric giant hyena. They were larger than today's hyenas, nearly two meters long, weighing more than a hundred kilograms, and with a great bite force — more than two thousand hyena fossils unearthed from The Dragon Bone Mountain in Zhoukoudian were very prosperous.
▲ Restoration of the skull of a giant hyena nibbling on peking ape man by scholars Russell L. Ciochon and Noel T. Boaz
If this is the case, could it be that the Peking Ape Man lost to the hyena in the survival competition, so the cave was occupied by the hyena, and he himself embarked on the road to extinction?
While it may sound plausible, it may not be. That's because during excavations at the Ape Man site in Beijing, scientists numbered the different sedimentary layers, and the larger the number, the deeper it was, the older it was. They soon discovered that the time when Peking apes and hyenas occupied the cave was staggered.
For example, a large amount of hyena feces was found in the thirteenth layer, about 700,000 years ago, with no human-related fossils; the eleventh layer, about half a million years old, contained hyena fossils and hyena feces fossils, and there were also Peking man skull fossils— they were probably dragged into caves by hyenas to eat, and there were a large number of human remains and fire traces on the eighth to tenth layers, but there were also hyena feces fossils, presumably traces left by humans and hyenas from the cave age of repeated battles — and at the same time, It has been found that the bones of animals eaten by humans often have hyena teeth marks, and it can be suspected that Peking Ape Man has a relationship with hyenas at this time, and may use collective strength or tools to drive them away and seize food after the hyenas have captured food. They and the hyenas compete for the cave, winning and losing each other. Since then, there have been thick hyena feces in the fifth and sixth layers, speculating that the ancient humans may have temporarily abandoned the cave and moved to a safer place.
However, rescue excavations in 2015 showed that there were few hyenas in the fourth sedimentary layer, and there were conclusive traces of human use of fire (similar to the ruins of fire ponds), which seemed to indicate that humans had returned to their "hometown" and drove the hyenas out – at this time humans seemed to have mastered better fire skills, no longer relying solely on natural fire, but having the capital to hold the cave.
This scramble may be universal, with giant hyenas that lost their burrows finally struggled to last about ten thousand years ago Chinese mainland and finally disappeared.
The demise of longtime competitors may be a good thing for Beijingers, but it may also be difficult to grab enough prey because of the disappearance of hyenas. That would also lead to the demise of the People of Beijing.
Today, when I talked about the Beijing Ape Man on the "Young Explorer" program of Beijing Television, I met Dr. Li Yulong of the College of Arts and Sciences of Peking University, and when he talked about this problem, he put forward his own view - the Peking Ape Man may not have perished, and their genes have always existed in us today.
▲ Author, moderator Luo Xu and Dr. Li
Dr. Li said that contemporary paleontologists still have doubts about the story of "Eve"," and the Beijingers are a good example. In fact, the Peking people are also from Africa, and there is no doubt that they are the descendants of ancient apes after migrating to Asia and other places.
But scientists who firmly believe in the story of "Eve" grandmother believe that there is a second time for human beings, that is, 70,000 to 80,000 years ago, african humans who have developed into modern humans have migrated around the world again, and they have become the ancestors of human beings on all continents of the world today. In addition to them, the Peking people, The Yuanmou people, the Javanese and other humans who settled on the mainland after the first migration were either extinct or extinct by them.
However, this view is now considered insufficiently authoritative. For example, the skeletal features of peking apes are very consistent with the shovel-shaped incisors and occipital bone features of today's Chinese (Mongolian race), and it is difficult to believe that it is a coincidence.
Academician Wu Xinzhi of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences believes that even if there is a genetic connection between "Eve" grandmother and humans around the world, it should be integrated with the local people including the descendants of Beijing people to reproduce together, so as to obtain different human beings in different places today, and fossils and DNA have the same importance in determining human reproduction routes. This view has gained more and more acceptance.
I agree with Dr. Li's view, otherwise it is difficult to imagine that humans can develop such a variety of varieties in 70,000 or 80,000 years. If this is the case, we should be thankful that in the war between the Peking ape man and the hyena, the human race won the final victory.
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