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SIGNIFICANT FIND: The 'Xuchang Man' has been hailed as the greatest discovery since the Peking Man. Chinese archaeologists dug up this almost complete human skull fossil in Xuchang, in the central province of Henan, last month. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
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BEIJING - A HUMAN skull fossil that could date back 100,000 years has been unearthed in China, state media said yesterday, hailing it as the greatest discovery since Peking Man.
Last month's discovery in Xuchang, in the central province of Henan, came after two years of excavation, the China Daily reported.
'We expect more discoveries of importance,' said Mr Li Zhanyang, an archaeologist with the Henan Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute.
The almost complete skull consists of 16 pieces with protruding eyebrows and a small forehead. They were fossilised because they were buried near the mouth of a spring whose water had high calcium content.
Mr Li said: 'More astonishing than the completeness of the skull is that it still has a fossilised membrane on the inner side, so scientists can track the nerves of the Paleolithic ancestors.'
Peking Man was discovered in the 1920s near Beijing and dated back roughly to between 250,000 and 400,000 years.
It was a species of the hominid family, which is now extinct, whereas the latest Paleolithic find, dubbed 'Xuchang Man', apparently belongs to the homo sapiens species and could be a direct ancestor of the Chinese people, the Guangming Daily said yesterday.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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