The Mystery of Gigantopithecus and Humans in Lingnan's Prehistoric History

Lingnan entered the Cenozoic Paleocene, and life experienced an unprecedented explosion! The first to appear were Nanxiong Stepronodon, Robust Stepronodon, Swellbone Stepronodon, Xiuren Archaeozoon, and Xiuren Beast. Then came the Shanghe Mesozoa, Dicuspidatum, Yuetung Beast, Hukou Beast, Heping Gaoridge Beast, Great Cone Beast, Exocone Beast, Short-nosed Luofuzhai Beast, Oriental Lei Anomalodon, Small Mi Beast, Small Archaeozoa, Blunt-toothed Protodon, Sharp-toothed Protodon, Meiling Jumping Hedgehog, Short-nosed Stone Monkey, and other ancient mammal communities, which continued to develop until their peak. Academician Zhou Mingzhen discovered in 1973 that Nanxiong Stepronodon coexisted with dinosaurs, proving that this beast was the earliest ancient beast in the world to appear in the early Cenozoic Era! This discovery caused a sensation in the scientific community at home and abroad.

In the Eocene, the geology and geography of Lingnan evolved towards a quasi-plain, and the Xijiang River Basin gradually emerged, with high mountains, medium mountains, low mountains, mountain basins, hills, river valleys, lakes, plains, and beaches. The landforms are all available. The land and water nurture the creatures of the land. At this time, the crown tooth beast, the proto-archaean beast, the true dinoceratops, the small brontotherium, the bicone beast, and the ancient carnivorous mesotherium appeared in Lingnan and continued to develop. In particular, the petroleum Malayan crocodile and the Maoming turtle produced in the Maoming Basin have become a wonder among the reptile communities of the same period in China with their well-preserved fossils! In the late Eocene, the ancient mammals began to be replaced by the ancestors of modern mammals.

In the Oligocene and Miocene, a group of more spectacular mammals such as Chinese rhinoceros, Chinese muntjac, trident, proto-oriental saber-tooth, three-toed horse, antelope, rodents and lagomorphs appeared one after another! In the Pliocene, the most ferocious saber-tooth tiger jumped out! Although the upper and lower jaws of the saber-tooth tiger can open up to 90 degrees, and the canine teeth are six or seven centimeters long, flat and sharp, for some unknown reason, it soon became extinct and was replaced by the modern tiger! Its extinction violated the law of "survival of the fittest". Scientists are very confused about this and don't know how to explain it. At present, there are various hypotheses about the function of the canine teeth of the saber-tooth tiger and the cause of its extinction. From the end of the Miocene to the Pliocene, ancient animals began to modernize and quickly approached or completely formed modern animal groups.

To learn about mammals, we must learn about the skeletal structure of mammals. To identify mammal species, their skeletal fossils are indispensable. However, complete skeletal fossils are often difficult to obtain because animal bones will be weathered by the sun and rain, impacted by floods, bitten by other animals, and transported by glaciers and streams, and lost or destroyed. Often only part of the bones are preserved in the strata and excavated by modern people. In fossil identification, comparison is a very important method, usually based on the characteristics of physical fossil specimens to compare and judge with research data. The appraiser must be able to skillfully use the knowledge of tooth and horn structure and species characteristics to measure the observed characteristics. Animal identification work plays a very important role in determining the age of the strata, analyzing paleogeography and paleoclimate, etc.

In Lingnan, the famous "Giant Panda-Sabertooth Fauna" lived throughout the Pleistocene. Its members include: Giant Panda, Orangutan, Oriental Sabertooth, Nama Elephant, Giant Deer, Chinese Rhinoceros, Cave Bamboo Rat, Black Rat, Cory's Tibetan Bear, True Horse, The Last Species of Hyena, Sub-ridged Porcupine, Horned Deer, Water Deer, Red Deer, Badger, Muntjac, Jackal, Civet, Cat, Tiger, Lion, Wild Boar, South China Porcupine, South China Porcupine, Musk Deer, Muntjac, Buffalo, Bison, Antelope, Macaque, Ding's Nosed Monkey, Golden Monkey, Gibbon, Squirrel, Hare, etc. In addition, there are Maba Man Fauna, Panlongdong Man Fauna, Chongzuo Man Fauna, Liujiang Man Fauna, Liujiang Lingyan Cave Fauna, Laibin Tongshan Cave Fauna, Laibin Qilinshan Man Fauna, Fengkai Huangyan Cave Fauna, Baojiyan Fauna, etc.

The "giant ape fauna" discovered by the famous paleontologist and paleoanthropologist Pei Wenzhong is a legendary story! The important fossils in this giant ape fauna include: Gigantopithecus brevis, Protodon orientalis, Mastodon, Gomphotherium, Giant Panda, True Horse (Yunnan Horse), San's Hyena, Chumodon, Sub-ridged Porcupine, Wild Boar, Bamboo Rat, Chinese Rhinoceros, Giant Deer, Chinese Deer, Masked Civet, Tibetan Bear, Orangutan, Gibbon, Macaque, Golden Monkey, etc. Among them, Gigantopithecus, Gibbon and Orangutan are all members of the "Anthropoidea", which indicates a powerful message: Humans are about to appear! The light of civilization is coming! This giant ape fauna appeared at the beginning of the Quaternary and the Early Climacteric Period, living in a corner of Lingnan and northern Guangxi, with a very limited distribution. Its fossils are buried in the Gigantopithecus Cave in Lengzhai Mountain, Liucheng, Guangxi, Lingnan, which is unique and mysterious!

The book "Excavation of Liucheng Gigantopithecus Cave and Exploration of Other Caves in Guangxi" written by Academician Pei Wenzhong has always been a classic work on the study of Lingnan Gigantopithecus. Is the Gigantopithecus living in the early Pleistocene a human or an ape? There has always been controversy. Mr. Pei is also the discoverer of the first complete skull of the world-famous Peking Man. In 1929, due to the discovery of Peking Man, the world believed that humans originated in China north of the Himalayas. It was because the uplift of the Himalayas blocked the moist warm air blowing from the Indian Ocean, causing the forests north of the mountain to wither. The ancient apes living in the forest had to go down to the land to make a living and finally evolved into humans. It was not until 1972 that someone discovered the skull fossil of Homo habilis 1.8 million years ago in Kenya, Africa, that the world turned its attention to Africa again, believing that Africa might be the origin of humans. Where did humans originate? Based on China's new discoveries, Jia Lanpo, a Chinese paleoanthropologist, proposed: "Humans may have originated in southern Asia."