Washington, Nov 19 (ANI): Archeologists have come to the conclusion that the two million years old human fossils, found in Wushan County, Chongging, belong to the earliest human species in China.
The findings include the fossilized remains of the lower jawbone fragment and an incisor of the human being named as the ‘Wushan Man’, as well as 230 pieces of stone tools.
This finding pre-dates the fossils of the Yuanmou man by 300,000 years.
The Yuanmou Man was discovered in southwestern Yunnan Province in the 1960s. It was previously regarded as the oldest human species found in China.
According to Huang Wanbo, a professor with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, his team unearthed the ‘Wusahn Man’ during their first excavation, from 1985 to 1988.
In the same stratigraphic interval, they also discovered fossils of 120 species of vertebrates, including 116 mammals, and a large number of stone artifacts.
“Various dating techniques corroborated earlier findings that the geological layer containing the Wushan Man fossils and artifacts is two to 2.04 million years old,” said Wanbo.
The team of archaeologists dug up and examined more stone tools and animal fossils at the Longgupo Site in Wushan Mountain during excavations from 1997 to 1999 and 2003 to 2006, which confirmed the ‘Wushan Man’ as being the oldest human species in China.
More diggings at Longgupo will be done next year to find further evidence. (ANI)