A Chinese archaeologist has discovered the fossil of a tooth from a stegodon orientalis, said to live in the mid-Pleistocene epoch, in Sichuan Province, southwest China.
Experts confirmed that the tooth fossil constituted forceful evidence for the theory of "glacier boulder,"
Wang Xingyu, an amateur archaeologist from Pengzhou City in Sichuan, discovered the fossil at a cave, 1,500 meters above sea level, on the local Zhuanjinglou Mountain in September. Wang also found a great number of fossils of ancient animals like rhinoceros, pigs and sheep.
Chinese archaeologists found some stone tools used by ape men and a fossilized anklebone in other caves in the city two years ago, according to Wang.
Cai Kaiji, an expert of ancient vertebrates from Chengdu University of Science and Engineering, confirmed that the fossil is a molar of a stegodon orientalis.
Cai pointed out that the stegodon orientalis is a kind of rare animal which disappeared from earth more than 10,000 years ago, while the formation of the fossil took place after the "glacier boulder."
Cai predicted that there may be more fossils of ancient animals in the cave.
It is learned that Chinese scientists found a complete section of glacier boulder near the Zhuanjinglou Mountain in June this year.
Professor Cai said that the discovery provided strong evidence for the theory of a "glacier boulder," and is of great significance in studying the development of ancient animals, geology and human beings.
(People's Daily 11/05/2000)
