Chapter 21 Searching for the ancestors of the yellow race①

--Research history of ancient humans in Yuanmou Basin Yuanmou, the lowest basin on the Central Yunnan Plateau, has been visited by Chinese and foreign geologists since the 1920s and found that the early Pleistocene strata were well developed, and early true horse fossils were unearthed, which has been recognized by the geological community as the It is the standard site of the early Pleistocene in southern China. It is as famous as Nihewan, the standard site of the same period in the north, and is famous all over the world. ① Originally published in "Science and Technology Daily" on August 1 and 8, 1995.

On May 1, 1965, geologists discovered primitive human tooth fossils in the early Pleistocene strata near Danawu Village, Yuanmou, which opened the prelude to the investigation, excavation and a series of important research results of ancient humans in the basin. In the winter of 1973, a large-scale excavation was carried out on the origin of Yuanmou human tooth fossils, and evidence proving the real existence of Yuanmou people was obtained—stone tools, bone tools and relics that may have been used by Yuanmou people were found from the primary layer of human tooth fossils— - charcoal and burnt bones.

In 1976, the geological age of the fossilized teeth of the Yuanmou Man was announced. According to the paleomagnetic method, the data was 1.6 million to 1.8 million years ago. This data pushes back the beginning of Chinese history from the Beijingers 500,000 years ago. For more than 1 million years, the discovery of Yuanmou man caused great repercussions in the academic circle.Just like any major discovery in paleoanthropology, it has also caused controversy: some people think that the tooth fossils may belong to orangutans, or late humans; Only about 500,000 years old. Are Yuanmou Man the earliest hominids in China?This became one of the focal points of debate in the Chinese paleoanthropological circles in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Twenty years after the discovery of the teeth of Yuanmou Man, fossils of the teeth of the ancient ape were found in the bamboo shed area of ​​Yuanmou, and they were named "Capable Man" or "Oriental Man" by some scholars. human fossils. From 1987 to 1988, another group of ancient ape fossils were found in the Xiaohe area of ​​Yuanmou. Not only teeth and jaw fragments, but also a juvenile skull were found, which was also named "Butterfly Rama Ape" by these scholars. They are thought to be the ancestors of humans who lived more than 4 million years ago.Based on this, some experts in Yunnan pointed out that Yunnan, especially the central Yunnan region, is the birthplace of human beings.The resulting properties of Yuanmou Australopithecus have become another focus of controversy in the Chinese paleoanthropology circle for more than ten years.

Focusing on these two major debates, Chinese paleoanthropology has carried out a lot of research work. Especially in the past ten years, with the support of the Natural Science Foundation of China and the People's Government of Yunnan Province, the research work has been deepened and a series of achievements have been made. Breakthrough progress -- As early as August 1991, a monograph "Yuanmou Quaternary Geology and Paleoanthropology" appeared at the "13th International Quaternary Research Joint Conference" (XⅢINQUA) held in Beijing as one of the conference series. It is a collection of various research results of the Yuanmou Research Project funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China.The book contains not only the results of the re-study on the Yuanmou Man's teeth, the appraisal report on the newly discovered Yuanmou Man's tibia fossil, but also the results of multiple new determinations of the Yuanmou Man's age. Using the amino acid method, electron spin resonance dating (ESR) and fission track dating (FTD), they respectively measured the age of Yuanmou Man as 1.54 million years ago, more than 1.4 million years ago, and 1.72 million ± 170,000 years ago In 2009, these data and the data further measured by the paleomagnetic method show that the fourth segment of the Yuanmou Formation is 1.33 million to 1.87 million years ago, and the layer containing human tooth fossils is 1.67 million to 1.87 million years ago. It is also consistent with the original 1.7 million ± 100,000 years ago.Therefore, at the 13th International Joint Conference on Quaternary Research, Yuanmou Man, who was 1.7 million ± 100,000 years ago, was generally recognized as the earliest hominid discovered in China.

On May 1, 1995, experts from China, Japan, Hungary, Vietnam and Thailand gathered in Yuanmou to hold the "30th Anniversary of the Discovery of Yuanmou Man and the International Symposium on Ancient Humans". Quaternary geological and paleoanthropological research results, they are: 1. As mentioned above, using a variety of physical and chemical dating methods, the age of Yuanmou Man represented by tooth fossils is determined to be 1.7 million ± 100,000 years ago. Yuanmou Man is the earliest confirmed age in China and even in the Asian continent. primitive representatives. 2. In addition to tooth fossils, hominid tibial fossils of a later age were also discovered. Studies have shown that its morphology has characteristics close to that of Homo habilis, and it is still among the Yuanmou people in the early stage of Homo erectus.

3. Typical artifacts from various periods of the Stone Age were discovered in the Yuanmou Basin. These stone artifacts constituted a fairly complete series of ancient cultures in the Qing Dynasty, including the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic, and became a representative cultural evolution of the Stone Age in Southwest China. Therefore, it further proves that the Yangtze River Basin is also one of the cradles of ancient Chinese civilization. 4. The discovery of the Australopithecus fossils from 4 million to 5 million years ago provides important clues for the study of the evolution of the Apes, especially the Asian great apes, and the relationship between the Australopithecus and the origin of humans.

5. The discovery of abundant paleontological fossils in different periods of the Late Cenozoic, based on which 5 mammal groups and 7 palynological sections were established, and their associated relationship with ancient humans was especially studied. 6. Extensive and in-depth research on the Late Cenozoic paleo-environment and strata in the Yuanmou Basin has been carried out in combination with the activities of ancient humans, and important results have been obtained. 7. A new comprehensive study and re-division of the strata of the Yuanmou Formation was carried out, and a new profile of the early Pleistocene Yuanmou Formation stratotype was established. This profile provides an ideal stratigraphic basis for the study of the lower limit of the Quaternary.

8. Systematically studied the neotectonic movement of the Yuanmou Basin, carried out periodical division and comparative study, especially studied a strong crustal movement that occurred shortly after the deposition of the Yuanmou strata, that is, the "Yuanmou Movement" and its impact on Chinese paleogeomorphology important influence on paleoenvironment. In short, after the past 30 years, especially the research in the past 10 years, it shows that the Yuanmou Basin is not only an ideal area for studying ancient humans and prehistoric cultures, but also an ideal area for studying Quaternary geology, landforms, neotectonic movements, and Late Cenozoic paleontology and paleontology. The best regions for climate and paleoenvironment.

At this commemorative meeting, it was also discussed whether Yunnan is the birthplace of human beings. In recent years, some scholars in Yunnan Province, based on the ancient ape fossils discovered in Kaiyuan, Lufeng and Yuanmou in Yunnan, combined them with later human fossils into a development series, that is, the Rama ape (Kaiyuan, Lufeng and Yuanmou) Yuanmou)→"capable people" or "Oriental people"→Yuanmou people→Zhaotong people, Xichou people, Kunming people and Lijiang people from tens of thousands to 10,000 years ago, and thus put forward Yunnan, especially the central Yunnan region It is the birthplace of mankind. This view is also accepted by a small number of Japanese scholars, and it was expounded at the Yuanmou Man Memorial Conference.

In fact, modern paleoanthropological research has shown that Rama ape is not the ancestor of human beings, but is actually a female individual of Siva ape.Siwa apes were widely distributed in a certain period of continental history in Asia. They were a group of ancient apes that developed towards modern Asian orangutans (brown apes), or became extinct during the development process.The concept of Rama ape as the ancestor of human beings has been abandoned by most scholars, and there is still no conclusion in the academic circles about which kind of ancient ape is the ancestor of human beings.In fact, no one has been found yet. In my country's academic circles, there are also many disputes about the attributes of many ancient ape fossils in Yunnan, but the indisputable fact is that in the comparative study with modern great apes, the morphological characteristics of these ancient apes are closest to those of brown apes in Asia.Modern paleoanthropological research has shown that among all modern great apes, African apes are most closely related to humans. In terms of classification, they have been combined into one category and belong to the same family: Hominidae, while Asian large apes The apes, the brown ape, are another family that is juxtaposed with it: Pongidae, and the differentiation time of these two families was 8 million years ago.It was not until more than 4 million years ago that the lineage of African great apes and humans separated, that is, they separated at the subfamily level. In the Xiaohe area of ​​the Yuanmou Basin, a skull of a young ape was found, which was once regarded as "Lama ape".In fact, according to my research, its morphological characteristics are very close to the brown ape juvenile, but far from the early human (Australopithecus) juvenile.As for a group of ancient ape teeth from the Zhupeng area of ​​the Yuanmou Basin, some experts once regarded them as "capable people" or "Oriental people", which is also difficult to establish.Its morphological characteristics are very similar to the similar teeth of Australopithecus in Xiaohe area, and it is almost indistinguishable to mix them together, and the shape of these teeth is also very similar to that of brown ape.According to research, the age of the ancient ape in the Zhupeng area is not 2.5 million years ago, but is similar to that in the Xiaohe area.So it seems that the ancient apes found in the Yuanmou Basin are 4 to 5 million years ago. They have the same shape as the ancient apes found in Kaiyuan and Lufeng areas. The differences between them only represent time and evolution In terms of taxonomy, they both belong to the "Yunnan Xiwa" and are different subspecies. (This means that the ancient ape that evolved into Yuanmou man has not been found so far.) When I was studying the extinction of orangutans in South China, I speculated that the orangutans that lived widely in southern my country during the Pleistocene period were probably ancestors of the Xiwa ape in Yunnan. representative.The discovery of these ancient ape fossils in the Yuanmou Basin further strengthened the rationality of this speculation.From this point of view, they cannot become the ancestors that evolved into Yuanmou Man, and the ape ancestors that evolved into Yuanmou Man have yet to be discovered in the future. So where is the birthplace of human beings?That is, where is the cradle of mankind?As the key region and time of the origin of human beings, in my opinion, it should refer to the region and time when the closest ancestor of human beings and the closest relatives of apes began to separate and finally separated. According to molecular anthropology The research speculates that there are two theories about the place where the two separated between 4 million and 5 million years ago, or "African theory" or "South Asian theory". It must be said that a large number of hominid fossils have been found in Africa, both in terms of type and quantity, and in terms of time span, which greatly exceed the materials currently obtained in Asia. In Africa, especially East Africa and South Africa, there have been various types of representatives under the name of "Australopithecus" between three and five million years ago and one million years ago. "Australopithecus group" is a very complex primitive group. Among them, there are not only the stout types that developed towards specialization until they finally became extinct, such as the Australopithecus ethiopia, and the stout species and Australopithecus boschii evolved from it, but also another branch that developed towards the later human The slender progressive Australopithecus--the African species Australopithecus, evolved from it into "Mrs. Ludall" (the so-called "Human 1470") and "Homo sapiens", the latter two have been included in the "genus Homo" Among them, it is believed that they developed into "Homo erectus", and finally evolved into modern humans through "fossil Homo sapiens". Following this evolutionary line, there are "Australopithecus afarensis" about 3.5 million years ago, not only the remains of fossils, but also the upright footprints left by them.Recently, it was also reported that 17 Australopithecus-type fossils were found from strata dating back 4.4 million years in the northeast of the capital of Ethiopia, not too far from the origin of Australopithecus afarensis fossils. characteristics, and the black ape is the closest human-like ape of all modern great apes.The geological age of this batch of fossil materials is very close to the divergence period between the ancestors of African apes and the ancestors of humans, so they are named "A.ramidus"-ramid has the meaning of "root", so they can be called "Australopithecus". (It was later re-named "Ancestor Ground Ape").In addition, in terms of prehistoric culture, stone tools that are said to be more than 2.5 million years ago have been found in Africa, mainly on the east coast of Lake Turkana in East Africa. So what about the situation in my country and the rest of the Asian continent?In the human evolutionary lineage or model constructed based on the abundant human fossils in Africa, Asia is still blank in the period between 2 million and 4 million years ago.In the period between 1 million and 2 million years ago, there are only a handful of Asian materials; in addition to Yuanmou in my country, there is still a fragment of the upper jaw found in the Great Ape Cave in Liucheng, Guangxi. The teeth of the primitive man, as well as the teeth of Jianshi in Hubei and the teeth of the great ape, also have individual human-like teeth. They may be at the same time as Yuanmou Man or later, and they are mainly Homo erectus.In other parts of Asia, only the island of Java, Indonesia, not only has the classic Homo erectus fossils, it is said that in recent years, hominid fossil materials that may be 2 million years ago have been discovered. As far as the Yuanmou Basin is concerned, after 30 years of investigation, basically there are still two tooth fossils and a tibial fossil from a later period.too little!At the same time, there were not only complete skulls in Africa, but even almost complete skeletons 1.6 million years ago. Natural science, especially the study of paleoanthropology, which explores the origin of human beings, pays attention to actual materials and a strict scientific attitude. It is not enough to have good intentions. Scientific inferences must be based on actual materials and can only be achieved on a solid material foundation. Make reasonable inferences and establish new theoretical systems based on evidence.Although the necessary inferences can be made based on sporadic materials, this has great limitations.Paleoanthropology in Yuanmou Basin has been studied for 30 years, but the in-depth study of it still needs to be continued with the emergence of new and key materials.For now, the birthplace of mankind is competing in Africa and Asia, but based on facts, the "South Asia theory" is still at a disadvantage, and efforts need to be made to discover more materials to understand the truth.There is not enough evidence to say that Yunnan is the birthplace of human beings, but if it is the birthplace of the yellow race, there is still some basis.We might as well say that, judging from the materials we have so far, the upper reaches of the Yangtze River Basin, or the Jinsha River Basin, is one of the birthplaces of the yellow race, which probably makes sense.