Scientists revealed that the ancient human beings of 14,000 years ago were "self -contained"

Xinhua News Agency, Kunming, July 15th (Reporter Yue Ranran) Through ancient DNA research, Chinese scientists unveiled the mysterious veil of "selflessness" that lived 14,000 years ago. The results were published online on the 14th in the internationally renowned academic journal "Contemporary Biology".

"Mongolian" was unearthed in Malu Cave in 1989 and is located in Montzi City, Hanihan and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Honghe, Yunnan. It was identified by experts that the cave was an ancient human site. After rescue excavation, more than 30 ancient human fossils including "Mongolian Self" skull, mandibular bone, and femoral bones were unearthed in the cave, as well as animal fossils such as deer, macaques, and black bears.

Malu Cave site. (Provided by Yunnan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology)

Zhang Xiaoming, the first author of the thesis and researcher at the Institute of Animal Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, introduced that the results of the physical anthropological research of a relatively complete skull discovered by Malu Cave showed that the owner of the skull is a young woman, with height and weight of 155 cm, respectively. About 46 kg, the skull height, dark skin color, low nose bridge, small brain capacity, live a life of hunting and collection, lived about 14,000 years ago. "Although the" Mongolian "is in the scope of modern people, the morphological characteristics are complicated." Zhang Xiaoming said.

"Mongolian" skull. (Photo of Montzi Cultural Relics Management)

In order to unveil the mysterious veil of "self -confidence", the researchers launched an ancient DNA genetic analysis with the "Mongolian" head cover bone fragments and found that "Mongolian" was an early modern man, not an old -fashioned human. The study also found that from the Yunnan Malu Cave in the southern my country to the Heilongjiang Basin in the north, about 16,000 to 14,000 years ago, a genetic component shared by the Chinese population has been formed, providing clues for the Chinese civilization exploration source project.

In addition, the researchers constructed the "Mongolian" skin color gene model to speculate that "Mongolian self" may have deep skin tone, and the genetic mutation of the "light skin color" of the Chinese population may occur in the southeast coast of my country about 7500 years ago. Region, this also makes the Chinese crowd more "white" than the Southeast Asian crowd.

[Editor in charge: Wang Jianing]

- END -