鄂西地区一个含早期人类和巨猿化石的新地层单位——高坪组

THE GAOPING FORMATION——A NEW STRATIGRAPHIC UNIT WITH THE GIGANTOPITHECUS FOSSILS FROM WEST HUBEI

着重论述了鄂西建始高坪龙骨洞的堆积 ,并建立了一个新的岩石地层单位——高坪组。高坪组为一套水动力条件较弱的暗河沉积 ,岩性为黏土、亚黏土、砂质黏土 ,含巨猿化石 ,属早更新世早期 ,可与柳城巨猿洞堆积、周口店第 18地点、元谋组下部对比。龙骨洞的地层时代早于 1.

Gigantopithecus is a fossil ape only from south China and covered from Early Pleistocen to early Middle Pleistocene in age. Its fossils were collected from the cave sediments of southern China, such as Guangxi and Hubei. The last work shows that the sediments with the Gigantopithecus fossils were only scattered in the regions south to the Yangtze River. This paper mainly focuses on the early Early Pleistocene strata with Gigantopithecus in the Longgu Cave from Gaoping at Jianshi County, west Hubei. The strata consist of the cave sediments, and are named Gaoping Formation in this paper. The Gaoping Formation is widely distributed in west Hubei, is about 5m in thickness and is mainly composed of the clay and sandy clay at the Longgu Cave. According to the mammalian fauna and magnetic stratigraphy, the Gao- ping Formation is correlated with the sediments of the Gigantopithecus Cave at Liucheng, Guangxi, Locality 18 at Zhoukoudian, Beijing and the lower part of the Yuanmou Formation in the Yuanmou Basin, Yunnan. The Gigantopithecus from the Longgu Cave is earlier than 1.93 Ma in age.