The recent discovery of a giant mastodon fossil site in northeastern Yunnan may provide science with a better understanding of the evolution of modern mammals, and possibly insight into the origin of humans.

A team of more than 10 Chinese and foreign archeologists have been examining the mastodon fossil site in Zhaotong prefecture, which consists of at least three complete skeletons, according to a Dushi Shibao report. One of the fossilized tusks found at the site is 2.6 meters long and weighs more than 150 kilograms.

The fossil was discovered by local farmers who were digging up brown coal. On November 2, local officials have already passed temporary protection measures for the site, located at Tangshuiba (塘水坝), near the village of Taiping (太平).

It is estimated that the mastodon lived between three and seven million years ago. According to Ji Xueping (吉学平) a director of the Yunnan Provincial Historical Relics and Archeology Institute, digging at the site has only just begun and those involved are hoping to find fossilized ape remains. Ape remains from this period would cast light on a crucial and little-understood moment in the evolution of apes.

One University of Pennsylvania professor who has been working at the Zhaotong site told Dushi Shibao that although analysis work was still being done, it was already apparent that the fossil came from the period in history in which large mammals died out and smaller mammals became dominant.

Note: Due to a translation error, this article originally dated the mastodon fossil as being 300 to 700 million years old. Thanks to the readers who pointed out the error.

Image: news.kunming.cn

More than five decades after its initial discovery, an archeological site in Dali dating back more than 3,000 years ago is suspected of being the world's largest Neolithic dig, according to a China Daily report.

The site, located on the banks of Jian Lake in Jianchuan county, Dali prefecture, was first discovered in 1957 by workers digging a canal, but excavation at the site – which has to date yielded more than 3,000 artifacts – only began in earnest in January of this year.

In addition to pottery, iron implements and bones, the site features more than 2,000 wooden poles dug 4.5 meters into the ground.

"I was shocked when I first saw the site. I have never seen such a big and orderly one. This could be only a small fraction of the actual community that existed at the time," China Daily cited Yan Wenming, history professor at Peking University, as saying.

The Neolithic period began about 10,000 years ago in the Middle East and is considered to be the end of the Stone Age. It is marked by the emergence of rudimentary agriculture and ended with the appearance of metal tools, either bronze or iron, depending on the part of the world in question.

Yan said the site is already bigger than the Neolithic site at Hemudu in Zhejiang province, which is considered to be the cradle of the Yangtze River civilization. Other similar in China have also been found in Hubei and Guangdong provinces.

"Right now there is also such a site being excavated in Switzerland. But that site is smaller than the one in Yunnan. The Yunnan one could be the largest in the world," Yan said.

Twenty-eight excavations have been made at the Jianchuan site, covering a total of 1,360 square meters. Min Rui, a Yunnan Archaeological Institute researcher leading the excavation, said the area may eventually cover 4 square kilometers.

Image: China Daily