 Skull cast,Paleozoological Museum of China | |
| Catalogno. | Nanjing 1-3 |
|---|---|
| Common name | Nanjing Man |
| Species | Homo erectus Homo pekinensis? |
| Age | 580-620 ka |
| Place discovered | Jiangning District |
| Date discovered | March 1993 |
| Discovered by | Liu Luhong |
Nanjing Man is a specimen ofHomo erectus (possiblyHomo pekinensis[1]) found inChina. Large fragments of one male and one female skull and a molar tooth were discovered in 1993 in Hulu Cave (Chinese:葫芦洞;pinyin:Húlu dòng;lit. 'Calabash cave') on the Tangshan (汤山) hills inJiangning 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]
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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 theTangshan Subdistrict inJiangning 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 theInstitute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) headquartered inBeijing. 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 uppermolar (Nanjing 3).[2][4]
The mammal assemblage indicated Huludong was roughly contemporaneous with theZhoukoudian cave site near Beijing, home of thePeking Man (the reason why the IVPP had joined the excavations).
Researchers usedmass 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 likeelectron 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 usingTIMS dating.[5]
Homo erectus occupation of Eastern Asia was an established idea well before the discovery ofHomo erectus from Nanjing. Nanjing Man is one of severalmiddle Pleistocene datedHomo erectus fossil finds in eastern China, the most well-known of which isPeking Man.[6] However dating the Nanjing Man fossils between 580,000 YA and 620,000 YA pushed the estimate forHomo erectus colonisation of eastern Asia almost 270,000 years earlier.[7]
The Nanjing Man fossil discovery coincided with thepaleoanthropological debate on the population dynamics ofmodern humans and their relation to other species of the genusHomo. The extended occupation ofEast Asia byHomo erectus suggested by the dating of the Nanjing fossils supports the hypothesis thatHomo erectus lived in Asia before pre-modernHomo sapiens existed.[7] A scientific consensus on the dispersal ofHomo sapiens throughout the globe was reached in the early 21st century.[8] However, the influence of East AsianHomo erectus on modern human ancestry remains unclear.[8]
Morphological features of the Nanjing Man fossils such ascranial capacity and the size of various cranial metrics differ significantly from other Chinesehominins. Despite this,morphometric and morphological features fall well within the range expected forHomo erectus.[9] A high diversity in cranial morphological features in ChineseHomo erectus has been identified in a number of studies[9][4][10]
The skull fragments collected at Hulu Cave are currently displayed the NanjingHomo erectus fossil museum, along with other educational information about Nanjing man and the colonisation of China byHomo erectus.[11]
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