Chinese Researchers Announce Discovery of One-Million-Year-Old Fossilized Skull of Homo erectus.
A section of the one-million-year-old fossilized skull has been removed from the rock. (Photo: CCTV).
According to a report from the National Cultural Heritage Administration of China on September 28, the new fossil was excavated at the Xuetangliangzi site near the city of Shiyan in Hubei Province, central China, where two other Homo erectus skulls were discovered in 1989 and 1990. These two fossils, known as Skull 1 and Skull 2 of the Yunxian people, date back approximately 800,000 to one million years.
The research team has named the new discovery Skull 3 of the Yunxian people. It is also estimated to be around one million years old. The fossil is located just 62 cm beneath the surface and about 35 meters away from the previous two skulls.
So far, the frontal bone, parietal bone, temporal bone, left zygomatic bone, left occipital bone, and eye sockets of the skull have all been found. All parts remain intact. This is the most complete Homo erectus skull fossil, also known as the upright man or direct ancestor, ever discovered on the Eurasian continent.
Skull 3 of the Yunxian people. Video: CCTV+
“No obvious deformation has been found. The skull is in very good condition and exhibits the typical characteristics of Homo erectus,” said Gao Xing, a researcher from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Currently, the lower half of the skull remains buried underground. The excavation team plans to carefully collect the entire fossil in November of this year.
“There are very few one-million-year-old Homo erectus specimens. Specifically, fossils older than one million years discovered in China and East Asia only include the Yuanmou human (Homo erectus yuanmouensis) dating back 1.7 million years and the Lantian human (Homo erectus lantianensis) from 1.2 to 1.6 million years ago. The Yunxian people lived during the intermediate period between them and the Peking man (Homo erectus pekinensis) around 800,000 years ago,” Gao added.
From about two million to 300,000 years ago, humans evolved into Homo erectus, with the Yunxian people considered a key link in the evolutionary process. This historical discovery helps bridge the gap between the Yuanmou people, Lantian people, and the Peking man in the evolutionary journey of Homo erectus in East Asia.
Gao further noted that when the first humans evolved from a group of ancient apes, their skull capacity was very small, only about 300 to 350 ml, similar to that of today’s chimpanzees, but then the brain size gradually increased during the Homo habilis stage and further developed as they reached the Homo erectus stage, with an average capacity of the Peking man being 1,088 ml.
The research team hopes to obtain more accurate data on the cranial capacity of the Yunxian people once Skull 3 is fully excavated.
