Nanjing Man

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Nanjing Man
Jiangning District
Date discoveredMarch 1993
Discovered byLiu Luhong

Nanjing Man is a specimen of

Jiangning District, Nanjing. The specimens were found in the Hulu limestone cave at a depth of 60–97 cm by Liu Luhong, a local worker.[2] Dating the fossils yielded an estimated age of 580,000 to 620,000 years old.[3]

Discovery

In 1992, Mu Xi-nan (穆西南), Xu Hankui (许汉奎), Mu Daocheng (穆道成), and Zhong Shilan (钟石兰) with the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology (NIGP) identified Hulu Cave near the

Jiangning District, Nanjing (roughly 26 km (16 mi) east of the city center of Nanjing) as a mammalian fossil bearing site, and organised further excavations with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) headquartered in Beijing. In March 1993, local labourer Liu Luhong discovered two partial skull fragments (Nanjing 1 and 2), the first retaining most of the face, and an upper molar (Nanjing 3).[2][4]

The mammal assemblage indicated Huludong was roughly contemporaneous with the Zhoukoudian cave site near Beijing, home of the Peking Man (the reason why the IVPP had joined the excavations).

Age determination

Researchers used mass spectrometric U-series dating to identify the age of the skulls. Best estimates date the skull to be at least 580,000 years old. This research, done in 2001 estimates the age of the skulls to be 270,000 years older than previous estimates, executed with the use of different dating methods like electron spin resonance dating and alpha-counting U-series. However, by using mass spectrometric U-series dating, the age for the tooth found on the Nanjing site was estimated to be only 400,000 years old. Researchers proposed that the enamel used to date the tooth may not have the same uranium uptake as the skulls, leading to the discrepancy in estimated age.[3] Another study from 1999 estimated one skull to be at least 500,000 years old, while they date the other skull being between 250,000 and 500,000 years old using TIMS dating.[5]

Impact of the Nanjing fossils

Peking man.[6] However dating the Nanjing man fossils between 580,000 YA and 620,000 YA pushed the estimate for Homo erectus colonisation of eastern Asia almost 270,000 years earlier.[7]

The Nanjing man fossil discovery coincided with the

Homo sapiens existed.[7] A scientific consensus on the dispersal of Homo sapiens throughout the globe was reached in the early 21st century.[8] However, the influence of East Asian Homo erectus on modern human ancestry remains unclear.[8]

cranial capacity and the size of various cranial metrics differ significantly from other Chinese hominins. Despite this, morphometric and morphological features fall well within the range expected for Homo erectus.[9] A high diversity in cranial morphological features in Chinese Homo erectus has been identified in a number of studies[9][4][10]

Present location

The skull fragments collected at Hulu Cave are currently displayed the Nanjing Homo erectus fossil museum, along with other educational information about Nanjing man and the colonisation of China by Homo erectus.[11]

References

  1. PMID 37030994
    .
  2. ^ a b W. Rukang, L. Xingxue, "Homo erectus from Nanjing", PaleoAnthropology, 2003. 6 September 2017.
  3. ^ a b J. Zhao, K. Hu, K. D. Collerson, H. Xu, "Thermal ionisation mass spectrometry U-series dating of a hominid site near Nanjing, China" Archived 2017-09-08 at the Wayback Machine, Geology, 2001. 6 September 2017.
  4. ^
    PMID 15584056
    .
  5. ^ Y.Wang, C. Hai, C. Luo, Y. Xia, J. Wu, J. Chen, "TIMS U-series ages of speleothems from the Tangshan caves, Nanjing", Chinese Science Bulletin, 1999. Retrieved 6 September 2017.
  6. ^ P. Brown, "Chinese Middle Pleistocene hominids and modern human origins in east Asia.", Human Roots: Africa and Asia in the Middle Pleistocene, 2001. Retrieved 6 September 2017.
  7. ^
    S2CID 9153290. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2019-02-20.
  8. ^
    S2CID 26693109
    .
  9. ^
    PMID 21541930
    .
  10. ^ Zhang, Yinyun 张银运; Liu, Wu 刘武 (2007). "Nánjīng 1 hào zhílì rén tóugǔ yǔ Kěnníyǎ KNM2ER 3733 rénlèi tóugǔ huàshí de xíngtài bǐjiào" 南京 1 号直立人头骨与肯尼亚 KNM2ER 3733人类头骨化石的形态比较 [A morphological comparison of two homo erectus crania: Nanjing 1 and KNM2ER 3733]. Rénlèixué xuébào / Acta Anthropologica Sinica (in Chinese). 26 (3): 237–248.
  11. ^ "Tangshan Homo Erectus Fossil Museum". The Najinger. August 14, 2014. Archived from the original on 2017-09-08. Retrieved 6 September 2017.

External links

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