Hualong Cave () is a cave in Pangwang village in Dongzhi County,

Anhui Province Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

, China, and situated on the southern bank of

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...

. It is located on the side of Meiyuan Hill. Palaeontological interest started in 2004 when a farmer accidentally found bones that were later identified as mammalian fossils. Excavations started in 2006 by paleontologists from the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republ ...

. It has yielded many stone tools and over 30 human fossils, and animal bones including those of ''

Ailuropoda ''Ailuropoda'' is the only extant genus in the ursid (bear) subfamily Ailuropodinae. It contains one living and three fossil species of panda. Only one species—''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''—currently exists; the other three species are prehis ...

'', ''

Arctonyx Hog badgers are three species of mustelid in the genus ''Arctonyx''. They represent one of the two genera in the subfamily Melinae, alongside the true badgers (genus '' Meles''). Taxonomy ''Arctonyx'' was formerly considered a monotypic genus ...

'', '' Bubalus'', ''

Sinomegaceros ''Sinomegaceros'' is an extinct genus of deer known from the Early to Late Pleistocene of Central and East Asia. It is considered to be part of the group of "giant deer" (often referred to collectively as members of the tribe Megacerini), with a ...

'', ''

Stegodon ''Stegodon'' ("roofed tooth" from the Ancient Greek words , , 'to cover', + , , 'tooth' because of the distinctive ridges on the animal's molars) is an extinct genus of proboscidean, related to elephants. It was originally assigned to the fami ...

'',

giant tapir The giant tapir (''Tapirus augustus'') is an extinct species of tapir that lived in southern China, Vietnam and Laos, with reports suggesting it also lived in Taiwan, Java, and potentially Borneo. The species has been recorded from Middle and La ...

, and

giant pandas The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear (or simply the panda), is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its bold black-and-white coat and rotund body. The name "giant panda" is sometimes use ...

. The most notable fossils are that of a ''

Homo erectus ''Homo erectus'' (; meaning "upright man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, with its earliest occurrence about 2 million years ago. Several human species, such as '' H. heidelbergensis'' and '' H. antecessor' ...

'' (dubbed Dongzhi Man) described in 2014, and that of a 300,000-year-old archaic human discovered in 2019.

Stone tool

Hualong Cave shows the lifestyle of humans in the Paleolithic Age. Bone tools were used for cutting animals but not for hunting. More than 100 stone tools have been discovered. These stone tools were made from siliceous rocks. Scrapers were the most abundant tools.

Animal fossil

More than 40 species of mammalian fossils have been discovered from Hualong Cave. The majority of them are

even-toed ungulates The even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla , ) are ungulates—hoofed animals—which bear weight equally on two (an even number) of their five toes: the third and fourth. The other three toes are either present, absent, vestigial, or pointing poster ...

. Only few rodents can be identified. Important specimens include ''Ailuropoda'', ''Arctonyx'', ''Bubalus'', ''Sinomegaceros'', ''stegodon'', giant tapir, and giant pandas. The occurrence of ''Sinomegaceros'' in the cave is remarked as the most southern in China.

Human fossil

Dongzhi Man

Popularized as Dongzhi Man, a human fossil described in 2014 from Hualong Cave is considered as among the most well-preserved ''Homo erectus'' specimens. It was discovered in 2006 along with stone artifacts and animal fossils during the first excavation. It consisted of two skull fragments and one separated (lower molar) teeth. The skull fragments were believed to be from the same individual. It is different from other fossils of the same species including

Peking Man Peking Man (''Homo erectus pekinensis'') is a subspecies of '' H. erectus'' which inhabited the Zhoukoudian Cave of northern China during the Middle Pleistocene. The first fossil, a tooth, was discovered in 1921, and the Zhoukoudian Cave has s ...

found in China. The teeth surfaces (enamel-dentine junctions) are much simpler and the cusps are sharper.

Other Fossils

In 2019 a discovery of 16 human fossils was announced which were estimated to be about 300,000 (275,000–331,000) years old. The fossil assemblage included 8 cranial elements, seven isolated teeth, three femoral diaphyseal pieces, and major portions of an adolescent skull (designated HLD 6, HLD for Hualongdong).

References

{{Reflist Caves of Anhui Paleontology in Anhui Pleistocene Asia