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Jaw bone of modern man found

2009-10-30 09:16 BJT

The Chinese Academy of Sciences and Peking University have jointly announced an archeological find near Chongzuo city in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The discovery is the fossilized lower jaw bone of a modern man. The find provides evidence to support the theory that modern humans did not only evolve in Africa, but in multiple regions across the world.

The lower jaw fossil was discovered by Doctor Jin Changzhu and his team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in May of 2008. It was buried in a deep-seated stratum of earth, in a karst cave in Guangxi. Fellow archeologist, and long-time researcher at Chongzuo site, Doctor Pan Wenshi, explains the fossil's significance.

Professor Pan Wenshi said, "The grooves and teeth arrangement of the fossil bears obvious characteristics with that of modern man. It indicates modern man appeared in this area over 100-thousand years ago."

The Institute of Earth Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Minnesota State University jointly tested the isotopic element detection on the fossil. The results date the fossil back to 110-thousand years ago.

Wu Xinzhi, anthropologist of Chinese Academy of Sciences, said, "The bone shows that the evolution from ancient man to modern man occurred in East Asia, at least in the area of modern Chongzuo city. It indicates that the process of the evolution to modern man took place in various regions around the world."

Guangxi's Chongzuo city had been a hot area for archeologists to excavate fossils on ancient vertebrates and ancient mammals. Those fossils have shed light on the research of human origin.

Editor: Zhao Yanchen | Source: CCTV.com