Yunxian Man () is a set of three

hominid The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); '' Gorilla'' (the ...

skull fossils discovered at the Xuetangliangzi site () in

Yunyang district Yunyang District (), formerly Yun County or Yunxian (), is a district of the prefecture-level city of Shiyan in northwestern Hubei Province, China. It borders the provinces of Henan (to the northeast) and Shaanxi (to the north and west). The dist ...

Hubei Hubei is a province of China, province in Central China. It has the List of Chinese provincial-level divisions by GDP, seventh-largest economy among Chinese provinces, the second-largest within Central China, and the third-largest among inland ...

, China. Two skulls were discovered, in 1989 and 1990, followed by a third in 2022. The first two were described as "crushed and distorted," but "relatively complete," and compared to ''

Homo erectus ''Homo erectus'' ( ) is an extinction, extinct species of Homo, archaic human from the Pleistocene, spanning nearly 2 million years. It is the first human species to evolve a humanlike body plan and human gait, gait, to early expansions of h ...

'' or early ''

Homo sapiens Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...

''. In contrast, the third skull was discovered "in good condition." The Xuetangliangzi

paleontological Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

site is at the mouth of the Quyuan River (), where it flows into the Han River, so it has also been called the Quyuan River site.

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 State Council may refer to: Government * State Council of the People's Republic of China, the national cabinet and chief administrative authority of China, headed by the Premier * State Council of the Republic of Korea, the national cabinet of S ...

designated the Xuetangliangzi site as a

major cultural heritage site under national-level protection A national priority protected site is the highest-level national protection for immovable cultural relics in China. The designation was first created under the 1961 Provisional Regulations on the Protection and Management of Cultural Relics, whic ...

, as part of the fifth batch of additions to the list.

Scholarly analysis

The first two skulls bear similarities to

Dali Man Dali man () is the remains of a late ''Homo erectus'' or archaic ''Homo sapiens'' who lived in the late-mid Pleistocene epoch. The remains comprise a complete fossilized skull, which was discovered by Liu Shuntang in 1978 in Dali County, Shaanx ...

, but are significantly older. Adjacent animal fossils allowed their age to be narrowed down to 600,000 to 400,000 years

before present Before Present (BP) or "years before present (YBP)" is a time scale used mainly in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events occurred relative to the origin of practical radiocarbon dating in the 1950s. Because ...

. 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 Paleoanthropology or paleo-anthropology is a branch of paleontology and biological anthropology, anthropology which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as wikt:hominization, hominization, throug ...

Chris Stringer Christopher Brian Stringer is a British physical anthropologist noted for his work on human evolution. Biography Growing up in a working-class family in the East End of London, Stringer first took an interest in anthropology during primary s ...

has suggested that Yunxian Man could be ''

Homo heidelbergensis ''Homo heidelbergensis'' is a species of archaic human from the Middle Pleistocene of Europe and Africa, as well as potentially Asia depending on the taxonomic convention used. The species-level classification of ''Homo'' during the Middle Pleis ...

'', which may thus have originated in Asia, though Chinese scholars dispute this classification. In a 2016 article in ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...

'', Stringer called for better access to Chinese fossil specimens such as Yunxian Man and Dali Man, such as by replicas or

CT scans A computed tomography scan (CT scan), formerly called computed axial tomography scan (CAT scan), is a medical imaging technique used to obtain detailed internal images of the body. The personnel that perform CT scans are called radiographers or ...

. In 2012, Stringer also wrote about speculation that Yunxian Man could be a

Denisovan The Denisovans or Denisova hominins ( ) are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that ranged across Asia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, and lived, based on current evidence, from 285 thousand to 25 thousand years ago. D ...

ancestor.{{Cite journal , last=Stringer , first=Chris , date=20 June 2012 , title=The status of ''Homo heidelbergensis'' (Schoetensack 1908) , url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/evan.21311 , journal=Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews , language=en , volume=21 , issue=3 , pages=101–107 , doi=10.1002/evan.21311 , pmid=22718477 , issn=1060-1538 , access-date=7 May 2024 , archive-date=24 March 2024 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240324183130/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/evan.21311 , url-status=live , url-access=subscription

References

1989 archaeological discoveries 1990 archaeological discoveries 2022 archaeological discoveries Homo fossils Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Hubei Paleolithic sites in China Yunyang District