Lantian Man
| Lantian Man Temporal range: Pleistocene |
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| Lantian Man, Reconstruction in the Shaanxi History Museum, Xian (taken in March 2006) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Primates |
| Suborder: | Haplorhini |
| Family: | Hominidae |
| Genus: | Homo |
| Species: | †H. erectus |
| Subspecies: | †H. e. lantianens |
| Trinomial name | |
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Homo erectus lantianens (Woo Ju-Kang, 1964) |
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Lantian Man (simplified Chinese: 蓝田人; traditional Chinese: 藍田人; pinyin: Lántián rén), formerly Sinanthropus lantianensis (currently Homo erectus lantianensis) is a subspecies of Homo erectus. Its discovery in 1963 was first described by J. K. Woo the following year.
Remnants of Lantian Man were found in Lantian County, in China's Shaanxi province, approximately 50 km southeast of Xi'an. Shortly after the discovery of the mandible (jaw bone) of the first Lantian Man at Chenjiawo (陈家窝), also in Lantian, a cranium (skull) with nasal bones, right maxilla, and three teeth of another specimen of Lantian Man were found at Gongwangling (公王岭), another site in Lantian.
The cranial capacity is estimated to be 780 cubic centimetres (48 cu in), somewhat similar to that of its contemporary, Java Man.
Scientists classify Lantian Man as a subspecies of Homo erectus. The fossils are displayed at the Shaanxi History Museum, Xi'an.
In the same strata as and close to the Lantian Man fossils, animal fossils and stone artifacts were found, such as treated pebbles and flakes. The presence of these stone artifacts and as well as ashes suggests that Lantian Man used tools and could control fire.
The Lantian fossils are two females who lived about 530,000 to 1 million years ago, the second being older by about 400,000 years. Gongwangling Man represents the oldest fossil of an erect human ever found in northern Asia.
A re-dating of the site occurred as research published in 2014. The new analysis has determined that the strata containing the cranium from Gongwangling dates to approximately 1.63 million years ago rather than the previously recorded 1.15 million years ago estimate. This new confirmed date makes the cranium the second oldest site outside of Africa, Dmanisi, Georgia being the oldest.
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Wikipedia