贵州毕节发现古人类化石与哺乳动物群

2008年12月在贵州毕节团结乡首次发现麻窝口洞化石点,经2009年、2012年和2013年3次发掘,在麻窝口洞上部砂质黏土地层中共发现了四千余件哺乳动物牙齿化石。2013年7月发现的3枚古人类牙齿,分别为左上犬齿、左上第一臼齿和右上第二臼齿。人类牙齿尺寸偏小,臼齿咬合面沟纹简单,没有复杂的咬合面皱纹和附尖齿带结构,牙根短而不显粗壮,上述特点有别于我国已经发现的直立人和早期智人,可归入解剖学上的现代人。与人类相伴的哺乳动物化石,经初步鉴定共计8目20科43属53种,动物群组合反映出亚热带森林生态环境。根据动物群的时代特点,地貌地层及堆积物的光释光年代测定,指示毕节麻窝口洞古人类的时代可能为中更新世晚期,或者晚更新世早期,毕节古人类牙齿的发现为东亚地区现代人的起源及演化增添了新的证据。

New Discovery of Human Fossils and Associated Mammal Fauna from Mawokou Cave in Bijie,Guizhou Province of Southern China

The present paper is a report on the new discovery of fossil human and associated mammal fauna from the limestone Mawokou Cave in Bijie, Guizhou Province in south-western China. Pleistocene mammal was firstly discovered there in 2008. Three human isolated teeth, one upper canine and two upper molars, were discovered during the excavation in 2013, in the sandy-clay layer of fluvial deposit, associated with rich mammal fossils. The human teeth are more comparable to that of anatomically modern Homo sapiens and different from Homo erectus and archaic Homo sapiens both in tooth sizes and morphological traits. More than 4000 associated mammalian fossils teeth were unearthed from Mawokou cave in the excavations of 3 seasons of 2009, 2012 and 2013, and 53 species of mammals, belonging to 8 orders and 20 families and 43 genera, are identified. These species show a typical assemblage of Ailuropoda-Stegodon fauna in Middle-Late Pleistocene in southern China, and a subtropical forest habitat with warm-humid climate. The mammal fauna assemblage and preliminary dating analysis suggest that the geological age of the human fossils from Mawokou Cave is probably late Middle Pleistocene or early Late Pleistocene.