毕节巨猿化石与共生旧石器的发现及其意义

THE DISCOVERY AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE OF GIGANTOPITHECUS FOSSILS AND ASSOCIATED STONE ARTIFACTS FROM BIJIE,GUIZHOU PROVINCE

本文报道毕节八儿崖洞穴堆积出产的巨猿化石和共生的石制品,是贵州第四纪研究和旧石器考古一项有突破性意义的新发现.该动物群含先东方剑齿象、小种大熊猫、桑氏粗壮鬣狗、山原貘、黄昏兽和裴氏猪等标志性成员,与重庆巫山龙骨坡等动物群非常相似,同属于早更新世早期.这一发现为重建贵州喀斯特发育史和复原古环境提供难得的时代坐标与内容丰富多彩的素材.八儿崖遗址出土的旧石器含"原型手斧"和"原型手镐"等非洲同时代的早期手斧文化要素,对研究旧大陆早期人类迁徙有重要意义.

The Gigantopithecus fossils and associated stone artifacts described in this report are discovered from a cave site named Baerya, Bijie City of Guizhou Province. They possess important significance for the Qua-ternary and Paleolithic archaeological research in Guizhou. The fauna include the marked members such as Ste-godon cf. preorientalis Young, Ailuropoda microta Pei, Pachycrocuta cf. licenti Pei, Tapirus sanyuanensis Huang et al, Hespertherium sp and Sus peii Han, etc. , which are similar to the fauna from Wushan Longgupo of Chongqing Municipality, and should be attributed to the Lower Pleistocene in age. This discovery provides with the rare mark of time table and precious document in reconstructing of paleoenvironment and the history of karstic development in Guizhou Plateau. The Baerya stone assemblage yields ＂proto-biface＂ and the ＂proto-pic＂, which are the essential components of contemporary African ＂biface culture＂ . So it is very important to the research of the early human migration.