Yunxian Man Explained

Yunxian Man is a set of three hominid skull fossils discovered at the Xuetangliangzi site in Yunyang district, Hubei, China.[1] [2] [3] [4] Two skulls were discovered, in 1989 and 1990, followed by a third in 2022. The first two were described as "crushed and distorted," but "relatively complete," and compared to Homo erectus or early Homo sapiens. In contrast, the third skull was discovered "in good condition."[5] The Xuetangliangzi paleontological site is at the mouth of the Quyuan River, where it flows into the Han River, so it has also been called the Quyuan River site.[6]

Skulls

Two nearly complete, but heavily deformed and broken skulls were discovered in Xuetangliangzi, in 1989 and 1990. These finds were called "Yunxian Man", after the name of the local district at the time. These were given collection numbers EV 9001 and EV 9002 and are sometimes referred to as "Yunxian 1" and "Yunxian 2".[7] The fossils were excavated by the Institute for Cultural Objects and Archeology of Hubei Province, the Yunyang Regional Museum (now the Shiyan City Museum), and the Yun District Museum.

In late 2022, a third skull, 35 meters from the discovery site of the two original skulls, was discovered and designated "Yunxian 3".

In June 2001, the State Council designated the Xuetangliangzi site as a major cultural heritage site under national-level protection, as part of the fifth batch of additions to the list.

Scholarly analysis

The first two skulls bear similarities to Dali Man, but are significantly older.[8] Adjacent animal fossils allowed their age to be narrowed down to 600,000 to 400,000 years before present.[9] Some sources have described the specimens as Homo erectus, including a 3D virtual imaging analysis in 2010.[10] However, scholars are still divided, with some suggesting that it could be a more modern species or a mix with Homo sapiens.

The paleoanthropologist Chris Stringer has suggested that Yunxian Man could be Homo heidelbergensis, which may thus have originated in Asia, though Chinese scholars dispute this classification. In a 2016 article in Scientific American, Stringer called for better access to Chinese fossil specimens such as Yunxian Man and Dali Man, such as by replicas or CT scans. In 2012, Stringer also wrote about speculation that Yunxian Man could be a Denisovan ancestor.[11]

References

  1. Li . Tianyuan . Etler . Dennis A. . 4 June 1992 . New Middle Pleistocene hominid crania from Yunxian in China . . en . 357 . 6377 . 404–407 . 10.1038/357404a0 . 1992Natur.357..404T . 1476-4687 . 6 May 2024 . 14 April 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240414005706/https://www.nature.com/articles/357404a0 . live .
  2. Web site: de Lumley . Henry . de Lumley . Marie-Antoinette . Abdessadok . Salah . Bahain . Jean-Jacques . Batalla . Gerard . 2001 . Le site de l'Homme de Yunxian . . 2024-05-06 . 2024-05-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240506074600/https://shs.hal.science/file/index/docid/360908/filename/site_de_l_homme_de_Yunxian_de_Lumley_et_alii.pdf . live .
  3. Book: 李学勤 . https://books.google.com/books?id=KtB7iumTYcsC&dq=%22%E6%9B%B2%E8%BF%9C%E6%B2%B3%22&pg=RA1-PA88 . zh:20世纪中国学术大典: 考古学, 博物馆学 . 福建教育出版社 . 2006 . 978-7-5334-3641-4 . . zh.
  4. Web site: 新发现 湖北学堂梁子遗址考古发掘取得重大收获 发现距今100万年"郧县人"3号头骨 . 2024-05-07 . www.unesco-hist.org . 2024-05-07 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240507114831/https://www.unesco-hist.org/index.php?r=article/info&id=2324 . live .
  5. Lewis . Dyani . 2022-11-29 . Ancient skull uncovered in China could be million-year-old Homo erectus . Nature . en . 612 . 7939 . 200–201 . 10.1038/d41586-022-04142-0 . 36447037 . 2022Natur.612..200L . 2024-05-06 . 2024-05-29 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240529075316/https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04142-0 . live .
  6. 李天元，王正华，李文森，冯小波，武仙竹 . Li Tianyuan . Wang Zhenghua . 1994-06-15 . 湖北郧县曲远河口人类颅骨的形态特征及其在人类演化中的位置 . Morphological Features of Human Skulls from the Quyuan River Mouth, Yunxian, Hubei, and their Place in Human Evolution . zh:人类学学报 . zh . 13 . 2 . 104 . 1000-3193 .
  7. Web site: Brown . Peter . Yunxian Homo erectus . 2024-05-06 . Peter Brown's Australian & Asian Paleoanthropology . 2024-05-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240506083901/https://www.peterbrown-palaeoanthropology.net/yunxian.html . live .
  8. Web site: Qiu . Jane . 13 July 2016 . How China Is Rewriting the Book on Human Origins . 2024-05-06 . . en . 2024-05-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240506083901/https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-china-is-rewriting-the-book-on-human-origins/ . live .
  9. Book: Brown, Peter . Human Roots: Africa and Asia in the Middle Pleistocene . Bristol: Western Academic & Specialist Press Ltd . 2001 . 0953541843 . . 135–147 . en . 10: Chinese Middle Pleistocene hominids and modern human origins in east Asia . 2024-05-06 . 2023-04-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230406072155/https://peterbrown-palaeoanthropology.net/Brown2001.pdf . live .
  10. Vialet . Amélie . Guipert . Gaspard . Jianing . He . Xiaobo . Feng . Zune . Lu . Youping . Wang . Tianyuan . Li . de Lumley . Marie-Antoinette . de Lumley . Henry . 29 September 2010 . Homo erectus from the Yunxian and Nankin Chinese sites: Anthropological insights using 3D virtual imaging techniques . Comptes Rendus Palevol . 9 . 6–7 . 331–339 . 10.1016/j.crpv.2010.07.017 . 2010CRPal...9..331V . 1631-0683 . 6 May 2024 . 29 May 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240529075316/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1631068310000850?via%3Dihub . live .
  11. Stringer . Chris . 20 June 2012 . The status of Homo heidelbergensis (Schoetensack 1908) . Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews . en . 21 . 3 . 101–107 . 10.1002/evan.21311 . 22718477 . 1060-1538 . 7 May 2024 . 24 March 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240324183130/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/evan.21311 . live .

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