A Nearly One Million Year Old Fossilized Human from the Hubei Province, Central China
Discovered on May 18 at the Xuetangliangzi excavation site in Shiyan's Yunyang district.
According to a news conference held by the National Cultural Heritage Administration in Beijing on Wednesday, archaeologists and paleontologists recently discovered a roughly one million-year-old fossilized human skull in the Hubei province of Central China.
The well preserved fossil was discovered on May 18 at the Xuetangliangzi excavation site in Shiyan's Yunyang district. Although the skull has not yet been completely unearthed, the parts that have been exposed, such as the frontal bone, eye sockets, left cheekbone, and temporal bone, show that the structure of the skull is more or less complete. Although it is still unknown how Homo erectus and later Homo sapiens are related, this finding adds to our understanding how modern humans first appeared in East Asia.
The Xuetangliangzi site is well-known for the historic 1989 and 1990 finds of two hominid craniums. Scientists have dubbed the two relics, which date to between 800,000 and 1.1 million years ago, the No. 1 and No. 2 skulls of Yunxian Man. Yunxian county was the previous name for the Yunyang district. The two fossils were discovered to be significantly distorted, though, when they were discovered. There are no visible deformations in the current fossil, No 3. It is in excellent shape and demonstrates the traits of Homo erectus.
The third skull was located around 35 meters apart from the first two and was buried about 62 centimeters below the present ground level. Their buried settings are comparable, as are the different kinds of other animal bones and lithic artifacts that have been discovered. According to preliminary research, the No. 3 skull should have dated to a similar time frame as the Nos. 1 and 2. If this is the case, the discovery might be the best-preserved Homo erectus skull fossil from about a million years ago ever discovered in the hinterland of the Eurasian continent. But sediment samples have subsequently been taken for laboratory study to help date the fossil. It will take at least another six months to get a scientific conclusion after using several technical procedures like geomagnetic, optical, and cosmogenic nuclides dating methods. In order to obtain a more trustworthy reference, dating will not only expand across the entire site but also concentrate on the skull.
All sediments discovered in the work zone will be transported to a lab for extensive research involving environmental sciences, geology, molecular biology, and other fields of natural science. Both the dating process and other site research can benefit from new technologies. For instance, Yunxian Man's living environment will be recreated using 3D virtual imagery. Once excavation has gone 2 cm deeper, a brand-new, detailed 3D picture of the working field will be created. Meanwhile, by operating in the digital world, the entire process will be mapped and reversible thanks to modern technologies.