Yunxian Man
- 2 min read
- 2 chapters
Related on Lably
Through Human
Skulls
Two nearly complete, but heavily deformed and broken skulls were discovered in Xuetangliangzi, in 1989 and 1990. These finds were called "Yunxian Man", after the name of the local district at the time. These were given collection numbers EV 9001 and EV 9002 and are sometimes referred to as "Yunxian 1" and "Yunxian 2". The fossils were excavated by the Institute for Cultural Objects and Archeology of Hubei Province, the Yunyang Regional Museum (now the Shiyan City Museum), and the Yun District Museum.
In late 2022, a third skull, 35 meters from the discovery site of the two original skulls, was discovered and designated "Yunxian 3".
In June 2001, the State Council designated the Xuetangliangzi site as a major cultural heritage site under national-level protection, as part of the fifth batch of additions to the list.
Sign in to keep reading
One more chapter is free with a Lably account.
Scholarly analysis
The first two skulls bear similarities to Dali Man, but are significantly older. Adjacent animal fossils allowed their age to be narrowed down to 600,000 to 400,000 years before present. Some sources have described the specimens as Homo erectus, including a 3D virtual imaging analysis in 2010. However, scholars are still divided, with some suggesting that it could be a more modern species or a mix with Homo sapiens.
The paleoanthropologist Chris Stringer has suggested that Yunxian Man could be Homo heidelbergensis, which may thus have originated in Asia, though Chinese scholars dispute this classification. In a 2016 article in Scientific American, Stringer called for better access to Chinese fossil specimens such as Yunxian Man and Dali Man, such as by replicas or CT scans. In 2012, Stringer also wrote about speculation that Yunxian Man could be a Denisovan ancestor.