Mandible fossil Penghu 1 was confirmed to be between 400,000 and 190,000 years old by radiocarbon dating and analyses of fluorine and sodium levels in bone samples, according to National Museum of Natural Science in Taichung City.
NMNS Department of Geology head Chang Chun-hsiang said the find is exciting and shows Taiwan possessed an abundance of resources allowing the survival of Homo erectus and other animals migrating from Eurasia during the Ice Age.
A member of the international research team making the discovery, Chang said other members of the eight-strong team included archaeologists Les Kinsley from Australia and Masanaru Takai from Japan.
According to Chang, the fossil was unearthed four years ago by a pair of fishermen above a submarine channel near Taiwan’s outlying Penghu County. “Exhibiting distinctly primitive dentognathic traits, Homo erectus did not need to evolve significantly for survival as it led a comfortable life in the relatively safe surrounds provided by Taiwan,” he said.
“The find also indicates the existence of multiple evolutionary lineages among archaic hominins before the arrival of modern humans in Asia,” Chang said, adding that Homo erectus originated in Africa 1.8 million years ago before emerging in Indonesia 800,000 years ago and northern China 750,000 years ago.
Taiwan’s second oldest human fossil dated from around 20,000 years ago was found in 1970 in Tainan City. (DF-JSM)
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