Through years of study, paleontologists from the Institute of
Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology under the
Chinese Academy of
Sciences conclude that Jiangsu and Anhui provinces centered
around the Shuanggou area might be a place of origin for the
world's human inhabitants. The announcement was made at the annual
meeting of Shuanggou Drunken Ape International Scientific Research
which opened May 12 in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province.
The research was conducted by Li Chuankui, You Yuzhu, Xu Qinqi and
Ji Hongxiang.
Professor Li Chuankui found the earliest gibbon fossil in the
southeast of Songlin Village in Shunaggou area, Jiangsu, in 1977.
The fossil, worn by water, is totally different from others found
in Africa, Europe and Asia. The following year, Professor Li
published an article on the Vertebrate Paleontology and
Paleoanthropology journal depicting his discovery. The article,
entitled "Gibbon Fossil of Miocene Epoch in Sihong of Jiangsu
Province," gave the fossil a name: "Shuanggou Drunken Ape." Experts
believe the gibbon was drunk at the time. According to the stratum
the fossil was found and 65 associated animal fossils, Li judged
the "Shuanggou Drunken Ape" is from the Miocene Epoch, which dates
back 10 million year ago.
Li
said that Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, or the Shuanggou area in a
wider sense, boasts a favorable ecological environment. Here
typical findings have been made, including mammals, primates,
anthropoid, Miocene Epoch ancient ape, ape-man and Homo sapiens.
Therefore, it is inferred that the Shunanggou area is one of the
centers of organism evolution and human civilization.
Evidences show that the Shuanggou area had experienced the
transition from forest to grassland, and then back to forest.
That's why so many paleoanthropological ruins and fossils are found
here. These changes might have helped the transformation from ape
to man.
Experts and scholars at the meeting say the Shuanggou area has
become a center of paleoanthropological evolution widely concerned
by East Asia and the world. It plays a significant role in the
study of distribution and development of ancient people in
China.
It
is known that a paleoanthropological fossil dating back 40,000
years was also found in Xiacaowan of Shuanggou area, which is close
to the Upper Cave Man of Zhoukoudian
discovered in Beijing. Chinese Academy of Sciences academician Wu
Rukang and the late academician Jia Lanpo, after carefully studying
the thighbone of the Xiacaowan man, concluded that it belongs to
later period Homo sapiens, who is almost the same with modern man.
Experts believe the Xiacaowan men are descendants of Beijing Ape
Man and that they are also ancestors of modern Chinese.
(科學時報 [Science Times] by
Pan Feng, translated by Li Jinhui for China.org.cn, May 18,
2002)