500,000 years ago, the Peking Man failed to climb to the top of the food chain, but became a demon that cannibalizes its peers

When it comes to "Peking Man", everyone is very excited, perhaps because it contains the word "Beijing", so many people mistakenly think that they are descendants of Peking Man! In fact, the Peking Ape has nothing to do with everyone. We are neither their descendants nor their transmitters!

The Peking Man has long since disappeared in the long river of history! And we are all from the same population, that is, "Homo sapiens". The latter group of Homo sapiens who walked out of Africa 130,000 years ago is an accurate result of genetic determination.

The reason why the Peking Man is called this name is because at the end of the 20th century, Chinese archaeologist Pei Wen discovered the first skull of Peking Man in Zhoukou, Beijing. He was located about 700,000 to 200,000 years ago, so They are named after "Peking Man".

They look a bit similar to humans, with nose, eyes, mouth, eyebrow positions, and mentality a bit similar, but compared to today's humans, their brow bones are higher, their eyes are deeper, their noses are more slumped, and their lips are more prominent. , The appearance is more rough, the body is thick and short, the legs are short and the arms are long, and he likes to walk with his waist bent, and still retains many features of the primitive ape.

In fact, Peking Man is the habitual name for everyone. Scientifically, he should be called "Beijing Homo erectus". He belongs to the primitive human in the intermediate link between the evolution of ancient apes to Homo sapiens. Today's humans evolved according to the process of Australopithecus, Homo sapiens, Homo erectus, and Homo sapiens.

Peking Man is a type of Homo erectus, but the ancestor of human beings is Homo sapiens, and there is reproductive isolation between the two, that is, they cannot breed offspring. Donkeys are not the same species.

Their brain capacity is only 1075 ml, which is 75% of that of modern humans. Although they can use simple stone tools and hunt, they are not very intelligent. The living environment at that time was extremely difficult, and they had to face wild beasts, natural disasters, and hunger. , diseases, some of which can only live into their teens.

In order to improve the odds of survival, they chose to live in groups, but they did not reach the top of the biological chain after all, and they faced too many threats, such as saber-toothed tigers, and the fierce hyenas in prehistoric times, which almost went extinct.

Zhoukoudian has a special place in the discovery of Peking Man. Archaeologists found that where the mandible was found, stone tools were found not far away, and animal fossils were found a little further away. Where did their torso go? This situation doesn't make sense.

However, their limb bones were not missed at that time, but they were not found, and many of the skulls still had broken marks, and even small bone residues could be picked out. How could the limb bones be missed?

So some experts speculate that this may have been damaged by nature, but their remains are in the cave, and the only thing that may cause damage to them is the water flow. After investigation, there is no sign of water flowing here, so what is going on? Before the archaeologists at that time could investigate clearly, the clues were lost due to the turbulent times.

In February 1939, on a small island in Rome, archaeologists discovered a mysterious cave 200,000 years ago. A skull was found in it, and the skulls of three other animals were placed next to it. The skull of the Peking Man is in the middle. There are obvious signs of being smashed.

This is very similar to the discovery in Zhoukou, Beijing. They all have skulls, but there are few limb bones, or they can't be found, so experts infer from the findings: "This is a trace of violence, and something terrible may have happened back then!" And The hole in the skull was smashed open with tools, and experts came up with a bolder idea: "Beijing ape-man once killed cannibals in order to survive."

During the excavation of Zhoukoudian, experts also found that there are traces of hyenas living here, but there are no traces of hyena bites on the head of Peking Man, so all this makes sense.

The hyenas in those days were very fierce and huge, even larger than the Siberian tigers today.

500,000 years ago, Beijingers came to live here, and they also lived in caves as a place to survive and hide. During the hundreds of thousands of years of life and death struggles, sad things happened. Forced by the helplessness of dying to survive, they cannibalize the same kind as they fail to forage.

This kind of behavior seems cruel, but it saved the lives of some Peking Man, allowing them to survive and not starve to death. It is not known whether this phenomenon is normal or not, but in this respect, it reflects Darwin's theory of evolution. One of the points: "natural selection, survival of the fittest". In the absence of wisdom, nature is very cruel.

However, the question of how the Peking Man went extinct has not yet been concluded, and it is still in the stage of conjecture. Some people think that it is a natural disaster, such as fire, freezing, etc., but the Peking Man has eaten the same kind of thing, which has been proved.