An aerial photo taken on August 16, 2023 shows the archaeological excavation area at the Longgupo Site in Wushan county, Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. Photo: Xinhua

A Chinese research team has collected a total of 118 species of mammal fossils and more than 2,000 stone artifacts from the Longgupo Site in Wushan county, Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. The project consisted of five stages of excavation from 1985 to 2024 according to a report published by Guangming Daily on Monday.

Huang Wanbo, a research fellow at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the latest paleomagnetic dating results show that these fossils and stone artifacts were formed between 2 million and 2.5 million years ago, and more than half of the mammal fossils belong to genera and species from the Pliocene to Early Pleistocene, 

The Longgupo Site provides valuable material for the study of human development and it provides evidence of human presence in the Three Gorges area over 1 million years ago. This discovery is of great academic significance and holds broad social impact, he said.

Also known as the "Wushan Ape-Man Site," the Longgupo Site is a paleolithic archaeological site. Located in Miaoyu township, Wushan county, it is a Pleistocene period site dating back more than 2 million years. Meanwhile, it also boasts the earliest known human fossils in Eurasia so far. In 1996, the Longgupo Site was listed as a key national cultural relic for protection.

In the 1980s, Huang and his team discovered the mandible of the ancient "Wushan Man" dating back 2.04 million years ago. The research has attracted great attention from domestic and foreign academic professionals.

Academic experts from around the world said that the Longgupo Site has preserved rich ancient human, paleontological remains and paleoenvironmental information from 1.8 million to 2.48 million years ago. The site provides a great opportunity to trace the formation history of mountains and rivers, paleoecology and paleoenvironmental changes in the Three Gorges region. 

Moreover, the site is also expected to reveal a reliable basis for the origin, evolution and study of ancient Eastern and Western cultures, according to the report. 

Global Times