Homo erectus in Hexian ape-man site

The history of human development can be divided into four stages: Australopithecus, homo habilis, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. Homo erectus can be divided into early homo erectus and late homo erectus. They already have human characteristics: they can make tools and walk upright, but their brains are small and their heads retain more primitive properties. The age of existence is about 23 million to 340 thousand years ago, which belongs to the early Pleistocene in geology and is equivalent to the early Paleolithic in archaeology. Homo erectus' brain was obviously enlarged. The brain capacity of early members has reached about 800 ml, and that of late members has increased to about 1200 ml. In addition, the brain not only grew in size, but also became more complex and reorganized, which indicated that Homo erectus had already had quite complex cultural behaviors. There is asymmetry between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, which indicates that Homo erectus has mastered the ability of audio language. Homo erectus' teeth also changed. The reduction of posterior teeth should reduce the corresponding gums and the bone structure supporting the face and mandible, which is obviously related to the fact that Homo erectus increasingly replaced some plant foods with meat. The front teeth become bigger, which seems to have nothing to do with chewing food, but it seems to have something to do with biting and taking things with your mouth, and it may also have something to do with preparing animal food, for example, tearing the meat with your teeth into small pieces, or shredding the meat for children to eat.

Characteristics of Homo erectus skull Homo erectus has a relatively flat face and a significantly larger figure, with an average height of 160 cm and a weight of about 60 kg. Homo erectus was the first human species to use fire; They were the first people to make stone tools according to what they thought was a specific pattern. In Africa, the cultural type represented by this stone tool assemblage is called acheulian, which is named after the site of St. Ashley in northern France, where this type of stone tool culture was also found. Ashelian's representative tool is an axe, which is made of flint nodules. One end is blunt and the other end is sharp. It can be used for cutting, chopping and drilling, and it can also be used for processing wood.

The appearance of Homo erectus marks another great change that human beings experienced in prehistoric times 2 million years ago. A series of progressive features possessed by Homo erectus greatly expanded its adaptability. Therefore, Homo erectus no longer lingered on the Yuan Ye of Africa like those primitive human members before them, but stubbornly walked out of Africa in his later years and spread to vast areas of Asia and many places in Europe.

China scholars are customarily called apes, and their fossils were found in Europe, Asia and Africa from 170 years ago to 300 years ago (or 200 years ago). Its skull is flat, its bone wall is thick, and its supraorbital ridge is thick. The brain volume is about 800 ml to 1200 ml and the average height is 160 cm. The structure of lower limbs is very similar to that of human beings, the femur is close to that of modern people, and the walking posture of Homo erectus is perfect.

Homo erectus (formerly known as Homo erectus) is an extinct species, belonging to Anthropoceae. Homo erectus fossils have been unearthed in most parts of the old world, such as Africa, Asia and Europe. The "stage" of Homo erectus' life belongs to Pleistocene in geological time (2.5 million years ago? 1 10,000 years), generally speaking, in the Middle Pleistocene. Most researchers believe that all fossils once named Javanese, China, Atlanteans and Sinai belong to Homo erectus. The name Javanese ape-man was defined by German zoologist Heickell in19th century. Heickell once assumed that there was a human ancestor in the past, so he called this creature in his scientific fantasy an ape-man. A few years later, Dubois, a Dutch surgeon, discovered a skull and other bone fossils in Trinnier, Java, at 189 1. A human femur was also found near the skull. Because this kind of femur is long and straight, much like the femur of modern humans, Dubois concluded that this kind of person must be able to walk upright. He speculated that the femur and skull belonged to the same person, or at least to the same primitive human, so he named this small fossil remains Homo erectus. Later, with more discoveries, the situation of this new special fossil race was gradually clarified. With regard to the cultural pattern or behavior pattern of Homo erectus' daily life, we can first learn something from the sites where he lived. In Zhoukoudian site, the fossil remains of Homo erectus were excavated from cave sediments, which in itself does not prove that these people have always been cavemen. However, there is other evidence that Homo erectus lived in Zhoukoudian for quite a long time as a prehistoric caveman. Homo erectus fossils from Lantian, Teneril, Sanjiling, Mozuoketuo, Torni Fen and Aodewei are all unearthed in the ruins of open areas, some in the gravel and clay layers of rivers, some in the sandstone of rivers, and some in the conglomerate and volcanic rocks. In addition, some were unearthed from lake sediments. The above situation shows that Homo erectus once lived in open-air camps along rivers and lakes. Both Zhoukoudian and Waitezuoluo sites show that people in the early Middle Pleistocene were able to use fire. Typical gravel stone tools, the so-called lithotripsy tradition in the literature, have been unearthed in the sediments of Zhoukoudian, Zuoluo and Weitesai. Along with the fossil remains of Homo erectus, there are many animal bones, which shows that Homo erectus was a hunter. In the food of Homo erectus, plant food accounted for a large proportion. For example, piles of Pu Shu seeds were unearthed in Zhoukoudian cave. Homo erectus may also have the habit of eating people (probably to absorb bone marrow from bones). There are many human skull fossils in Zhoukoudian sediments, which scholars believe are evidence of the headhunting custom of Homo erectus.

This newspaper (reporter often) Ma 'anshan "Hexian ape-man" site protection plan was officially launched a few days ago. This project was approved by National Cultural Heritage Administration in 20 10 and 10. At present, the preparatory work such as environmental assessment and topographic mapping has basically ended. The preparation of this protection plan will lay a solid foundation for the next step of site protection.

It is understood that "Hexian ape-man" was discovered 1980 years ago, 250,000 years ago, and it is the only well-preserved ape-man skull fossil in China. The site is also the only national key cultural relics protection unit in the county.