泥河湾盆地鹿角梁发现早更新世动物化石和旧石器

泥河湾盆地有成效的科学开拓已经整一个世纪，它以早更新世化石哺乳动物群而名扬世界，现今又以盛产早更新世旧石器遗址而令人密切关注。泥河湾盆地越来越多的考古发现表明，人类走出非洲不可能晚于200万年前。鹿角梁是泥河湾盆地新发现的一处早更新世旧石器地点，出土石制品34件，包括修理品2件、石片18件、石核5件和断块9件，还有大量哺乳动物的骨骼和牙齿化石，其中草原猛犸象（Mammuthus trogontherii）和裴氏板齿犀（Elasmotherium peii）特别引人瞩目。鹿角梁地点所在层位略高于小长梁遗址层位，推测其年龄接近于1.5 Ma。鹿角梁地点的发现，不仅填补了泥河湾盆地早更新世人类遗址序列的一个缺环，而且也增加了泥河湾动物群的一些不多见的化石材料，为研究草原猛犸象和裴氏板齿犀在中国乃至东亚地区的出现和演化提供了实物证据。

Discovery of Paleolithic artifacts and mammal fossils from the Lower Pleistocene at the Lujiaoliang in Nihewan Basin

Nihewan Basin has been explored scientifically for a century. Nihewan Basin is famous for its Early Pleistocene fossil mammal fauna, and has attracted close attention for its abundant Early Pleistocene paleolithic sites. A growing number of archaeological finds in the basin suggest that humans could not have migrated out of Africa later than 2 million years ago. Lujiaoliang(40°13'01″N, 114°39'26″E) is a newly discovered Early Pleistocene paleolithic site in Nihewan Basin. Here 34 stone artifacts were unearthed, including 2 trimmed pieces, 18 flaks, 5 cores and 9 chunks, as well as a large number of mammal bones and teeth. The identified species Mammuthus trogontherii and Elasmotherium peii constitute the distinctive features of Early Quaternary mammal fauna. Lujiaoliang is located at the bottom of the Houshishan Member of the Nihewan Formation of the Lower Pleistocene, and its age is slightly later than that of Xiaochangliang site, which is estimated to be close to 1.5 Ma. The discovery of Lujiaoliang site not only supplemented a missing link in the sequence of Early Pleistocene human sites in Nihewan Basin, but also added some rare fossil materials of Nihewan Fauna, providing physical evidence for the study of the occurrence and evolution of steppe mammoth and Elasmotherium peii in China and even in East Asia.