  Shown within Shanxi  Xujiayao (China) | |
| Location | Hebei and Shanxi, China |
|---|---|
| Region | Nihewan Basin |
| Coordinates | 40°06′02″N113°58′39″E / 40.10056°N 113.97750°E Coordinates: 40°06′02″N113°58′39″E / 40.10056°N 113.97750°E |
| History | |
| Periods | early Late Pleistocene |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1976, [1] 1977, [1] 1979, [1] 2007, [2] 2008 [2] |
Xujiayao, located in the Nihewan Basin in China, is an early Late Pleistocene [3] paleoanthropological site famous for its archaic hominin fossils. [4]
Xujiayao is located on the west bank of the Liyi River, a tributary of the Sanggan River. [5] [2] Xujiayao actually consists of two sites, Locality 73113 and Locality 74093. [6] [2] Locality 73113 is located near Xujiayao village in Yanggao County, Shanxi, [5] while Locality 74093 is located near Houjiayao village in Yangyuan County, Hebei. [2] Most of the fossils and artefacts were found at Locality 74093. [6]
Xujiayao was discovered by researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) in 1974. [6] IVPP carried out excavations in 1976, 1977, and 1979. [6] Later excavations, in 2007 and 2008, were carried out by the Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics. [2]
Twenty hominid fossils were discovered at Xujiayao, consisting of 12 parietal bones, 1 temporal bone, 2 occipital bones, 1 mandibular bone fragment, 1 juvenile maxilla, and 3 isolated teeth. [1] [3]
The fossils remains at Xujiayao are difficult to classify and are of an uncertain taxonomic lineage, possibly representing a distinct hominin lineage. [3]
The Xujiayao fossils are characterized by a mix of Homo erectus and Homo sapiens features. [7] The skulls also have a thick cranial vault, at the upper range of Homo erectus pekinensis. [7] The maxilla exhibits features more typical of modern Homo sapiens. [7]
Dental analysis shows that the Xujiayao hominin appears to retain many archaic features found in hominin fossils, such as Homo pekinensis, from the Early and Middle Pleistocene in East Asia, share more similarities with these earlier East Asian hominins, and share some similarities with Neanderthals. [8] While fossil sample Xujiayao 15 had mostly non-Neanderthal features appearance-wise, a CT scan revealed that the inner ear, surprisingly, was arranged in a way that was typical of Neanderthal inner ears. [9]
One of the fossil samples, Xujiayao 11, had an enlarged parietal foramen (a hole in the skull), an extremely rare abnormality that is found in less than 1 out of 25,000 cases in modern humans. [10] Xujiayao 11 is the oldest hominin fossil to exhibit this abnormality. [10]
In terms of brain capacity, "Researchers reconstructed a complete skull of Xujiayao Man for the first time and estimated that the cranial capacity of the ancient relative of modern humans reached 1,700 cubic centimeters" and "The average brain capacity of modern humans is about 1,400 cc and the normal range is from 1,100 cc to 1,700 cc, " [11]
Around 5000 specimens from twenty-one distinct species are represented at Xujiayao. [12] The large majority of the remains belong to Przewalski's horse and Equus hemionus. [12] The next most common remains belong to Coelodonta, Spirocerus (Xujiayao antelope/Spirocerus hsuchiayaocus and Pei's antelope/Spirocerus peii), Procapra and Gazella. [12] Some red deer, sika deer and pig remains were also found. [12]
The Xujiayao hominin excelled as horse hunters, [2] having regular access to animal protein, primarily coming from equids. [13]
Almost 30,000 lithic, bone and antler artefacts were also unearthed at Xujiayao. [7] Tools found at Xujiayao include scrapers, points, gravers, anvils, chopper and spheroids. [7] [14] Over 50% of the artefacts consist of finished tools. [14] Over 40% of the artefacts consist of scrapers. [14] The artefacts there include the presence of over 1000 stone spheroids, the most of any Paleolithic site in China. [14]
Peking Man is a subspecies of H. erectus which inhabited the Zhoukoudian Cave of northern China during the Middle Pleistocene. The first fossil, a tooth, was discovered in 1921, and the Zhoukoudian Cave has since then become the most productive H. erectus site in the world. Peking Man was instrumental in the foundation of Chinese anthropology, and fostered an important dialogue between Western and Eastern science for decades to come. The fossils became the centre of anthropological discussion, and were classified as a direct human ancestor, propping up the Out of Asia hypothesis that humans evolved in Asia. Peking Man also played a vital role in the restructuring of the Chinese identity following the Chinese Communist Revolution, and was intensively communicated to working class and peasant communities to introduce them to Marxism and science. Early models of Peking Man society strongly leaned towards communist or nationalist ideals, leading to discussions on primitive communism and polygenism. This produced a strong schism between Western and Eastern interpretations, especially as the West adopted the Out of Africa hypothesis by the late 20th century, and Peking Man's role in human evolution diminished as merely an offshoot of the human line. Though Out of Africa is now the consensus, Peking Man interbreeding with human ancestors is frequently discussed especially in Chinese circles.
Homo heidelbergensis is an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human which existed during the Middle Pleistocene. It was subsumed as a subspecies of H. erectus in 1950 as H. e. heidelbergensis, but towards the end of the century, it was more widely classified as its own species. It is debated whether or not to constrain H. heidelbergensis to only Europe or to also include African and Asian specimens, and this is further confounded by the type specimen being a jawbone, because jawbones feature few diagnostic traits and are generally missing among Middle Pleistocene specimens. Thus, it is debated if some of these specimens could be split off into their own species or a subspecies of H. erectus. Because the classification is so disputed, the Middle Pleistocene is often called the "muddle in the middle."
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