www.scmp.com /news/people-culture/environment/article/3182952/163-million-year-old-fossil-may-have-been-first

This 1.63 million-year-old fossil may have been the first human (hominin) to inhabit China

Kevin McSpadden 2-2 minutes 6/26/2022

Scientists believe they may have pinpointed one of the first hominins to live in China in the form of a 1.63 million-year-old Homo erectus fossil nicknamed “Lantian Man” found in northwest China.

Teeth analysis of the fossil, unearthed in 1963 at Gongwangling near Xian in Shaanxi province, showed that it shared similarities with two-million-year-old fossils found in the Republic of Georgia that are the first known Homo erectus species to arrive in Asia from Africa.

Interestingly, the Gongwangling Homo erectus also had similar features to younger species found in China who lived between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago. Furthermore, there were notable differences, suggesting a degree of variability among the species.

Taken together, the findings offer an intriguing possibility that the Gongwangling Homo erectus could have been a connector between the fossils found in Georgia and the younger Homo erectus specimens discovered in China.

Photographs of teeth analysis performed on China’s ‘Lantian Man’. Photo: National Research Centre on Human Evolution

Photographs of teeth analysis performed on China’s ‘Lantian Man’. Photo: National Research Centre on Human Evolution

The scientists wrote that the information suggests a “temporal trend” between the older and younger specimens but acknowledged that more studies would be needed to confirm that the Homo erectus from Gongwangling was a descendant of the Georgia animals and an ancestor to the younger fossils found in China.