GoKunming

The recent discovery of a giant mastodon fossil site in northeastern Yunnan may provide science with a better understanding of the evolution of modern mammals, and possibly insight into the origin of humans.

The fossil was discovered by local farmers who were digging up brown coal. On November 2, local officials have already passed temporary protection measures for the site, located at Tangshuiba, near the village of Taiping.

It is estimated that the mastodon lived between three and seven million years ago. According to Ji Xueping a director of the Yunnan Provincial Historical Relics and Archeology Institute, digging at the site has only just begun and those involved are hoping to find fossilized ape remains. Ape remains from this period would cast light on a crucial and little-understood moment in the evolution of apes.

One University of Pennsylvania professor who has been working at the Zhaotong site told Dushi Shibao that although analysis work was still being done, it was already apparent that the fossil came from the period in history in which large mammals died out and smaller mammals became dominant.

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