The cave where fossils of ancient animals were found.

A large number of fossils of ancient animals including bull, sheep and rabbit were recently found in a cave behind Xitaiping Village in Shidu, a scenic spot in Fangshan District in the southwestern suburbs of Beijing, 70 kilometers from downtown.

Preliminary examination by experts showed that these ancient creatures lived 100,000 years ago, earlier than the Upper Cave Man and later than the Peking Man. A two-meter-long ash belt and tooth fossils, thought to belong to ancient men, were also discovered. The site is 35 kilometers from Zhoukoudian, where the Peking Man lived, indicating other possible sites of ancient men in Beijing.

Fossils of ancient animals found in Shidu.

The fossils were found accidentally during a tourism development program.

According to tourism professor Bi Fengxiang from Beijing International Studies University, who took part in the program, a deep cave was found in the mountain in last April. After entering the cave and walked more than 1,000 meters, they were blocked by an underground river. On April 7, workers began to dig and a large number of animal bone fragments were discovered, which were later proved to be 100,000 years old by experts from the Research Institute of Paleo-vertebrate creatures and Paleo-anthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Professor Bi also found two pieces of teeth fossils and thought that they belonged to ancient men. They are different from those of animals, he said, but are very like man's molars.

The ash belt suggests a high possibility of human activities 100,000 years ago in Shidu area, which is perhaps another home of Peking Man, Bi said. But another expert Lan Lizhi argued that an ash belt alone doesn't points to human existence, because a forest fire can simply leave the same traces. Fires lit up by ancient men at this site can only be proved by both ash belt and ancient man fossils.

By People's Daily Online