Europe was once considered the birthplace of mankind. When people opened the map, they saw that Europe is full of ancient human sites. The earliest fossil of an ancient ape discovered by archaeologists was also unearthed in 1856. France. With the discovery of more human fossils in Asia and Africa, the theory of Europe as the cradle of mankind gradually faded away.

In a monograph published in 1871, Darwin boldly speculated: Africa is the cradle of mankind. Cradle. Previously, in 1863, some people claimed that humans originated in South Asia. The latter was soon confirmed: in 1890, a skull was discovered in Indonesia, and "Javanese Homo erectus" revived the theory that humans originated in South Asia. In 1927, The discovery of "Peking Man" fossils in China made the theory of Central Asian origins even more popular.

But since then, the earliest human fossils have been found in no less than 20 locations in South Africa and East Africa. , especially in 1974, in Ethiopia, where the East African Great Rift Valley is located, a "Lucy Girl" ape-man skeleton with 40 remains preserved, dating back more than 3 million years; coupled with a large number of early human fossils unearthed in Africa, formed a A fairly complete evolutionary system. As a result, the theory that humans around the world "went out of Africa" ??flourished.

However, the genetic sequencing theory that best supports the "out of Africa" ??theory has also been widely questioned. As Jin Changzhu, a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: "There are as many as 3 billion gene sequences in the human body. Current sequencing only extracts individual fragments for analysis, and the probability is only one in a hundred million." And in our case. In China, ape-man fossils dating from 3 to 5 million years ago have been discovered, Homo habilis from Longgupo about 2 million years ago, Yuanmou Man from 1.7 million years ago, and Lantian in Shaanxi about 800,000 years ago. Homo erectus, which dates back hundreds of thousands of years, has been discovered, including Homo erectus, which dates back hundreds of thousands of years ago. Homo sapiens, Chaohu Man and Fulin Man, who date back 20,000 to 30,000 years ago, have also been discovered in Beijing, which is about 18,000 years ago. The cavemen on the top of the mountain... "'Origin of China' is self-contained, with vertical lines running through it!"

So far, the scientific community is still lingering in front of the mystery of human origin and evolution. At this moment, people can't help but reflect on more than 70 years. Advice from some far-sighted scientists in the past:

"Asia may have served as a huge stage for human evolution and a huge diffusion center for the oldest human industries. If you want to understand complex issues such as the origin of humankind, , it is almost unimaginable to leave Asia.”

“China discovered the Yuanmou Man in 1965, but in the context of the times at that time, the country was closed for a long time, and international experts poured in one after another. Africa, resulting in a large number of archaeological discoveries in Africa. The research on Yuanmou Man can no longer be carried out alone!"

In fact, in recent years, researchers in Asia, especially China, are launching an action to "catch up with Africa". They Many discoveries in Africa are directly comparable in age to those in Africa, which are considered to be the world's earliest human fossils and Paleolithic tools. "We have reason to believe that with the discovery of more new materials and more in-depth research in Asia, a picture that is consistent with the original picture will The purpose is to reveal a picture of human origin and evolution to people."

Of course, everything has to wait until the most important human fossils are unearthed.

In fact, "Where did I come from? "Come?" is an ancient proposition that is still being answered today.

Human beings are always approaching the original truth of themselves through constant discovery. I believe that the mystery of human origins will be solved.