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{{short description|Fossil of an extinct non-hominin ape of central China from 2 mya}}
{{Infobox fossil|image=Wushanren - IMG 1259.JPG|species=''[[Hominidae]]'', species uncertain|age=2 million years|place discovered=[[Chongqing]], [[China]]|date discovered=1985|discovered by=|catalog number=|common name=Wushan Man|caption=Wushan Man fossil at [[Three Gorges Museum]]}}
'''Wushan Man''' ({{zh|c=巫山人|p=Wūshānrén}}, literally "Shaman Mountain Man") is a set of fossilised remains of an extinct, undetermined non-[[hominin]] ape found in central [[China]] in 1985. The remains are dated to around 2 million years ago and were originally considered to represent a subspecies of ''[[Homo erectus]]'' (''H. e. wushanensis'').<ref name="Ciochon2">Ciochon RL. (2009). "The mystery ape of Pleistocene Asia. ''Nature''. 459: 910-911. {{doi|10.1038/459910a}}. This piece in Nature is based on a contribution to the forthcoming book" ''Out of Africa I: Who, When and Where?'' (eds, Fleagle, J. G. et al. Springer, 2009)</ref><ref>Handwerk B. (2009). [https://web.archive.org/web/20090621071019/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/090617-early-human-ape-mystery.html Early "Human" Is Ape After All, Discoverer Decides] ''National Geographic News'' June 17, 2009</ref>

The fossils were found in 1985 in [[Longgupo]] ({{linktext|龙骨坡|lang=zh}} or "Dragon Bone Slope"), Zhenlongping Village, Miaoyu Town of [[Wushan County, Chongqing]] in the [[Three Gorges]].

==Background ==

=== 1984–1988: Discovery ===
The "Dragon Bone Slope" at Longgupo was discovered as a site containing fossils in 1984. From 1985 to 1988, it was [[Excavation (archaeology)|excavated]] by a team of Chinese scientists, led by Huang Wanpo from the [[Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology]] in [[Beijing]] and the Chongqing National Museum ([[Sichuan]] Province). 

In 1986, three fore-teeth and a left [[Human mandible|mandible]] with two [[molars]] were unearthed along with animal fossils including teeth from the extinct large ape ''[[Gigantopithecus]]'' and pygmy giant panda ''[[Ailuropoda microta]]''. Excavations from 1997 to 2006 have found additional stone tools and animal fossils including remains of 120 species of vertebrates, 116 of which are mammals. This suggests that the fossils originally existed in a subtropical forest environment.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Jin |first1=Changzhu |last2=Ciochon |first2=Russell L. |last3=Dong |first3=Wei |last4=Hunt |first4=Robert M. |last5=Liu |first5=Jinyi |last6=Jaeger |first6=Marc |last7=Zhu |first7=Qizhi |date=2007-06-26 |title=The first skull of the earliest giant panda |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=104 |issue=26 |pages=10932–10937 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0704198104 |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=1904166 |pmid=17578912|bibcode=2007PNAS..10410932J |doi-access=free }}</ref> Remains of ''[[Sinomastodon]]'', ''[[Nestoritherium]]'', ''[[Equus yunnanensis]]'', ''[[Ailuropoda microta]]'' in the jaw suggested that its remains belonged to the earliest part of the [[Pleistocene]] or late [[Pliocene]].<ref name="Huang2">{{Cite journal |last1=Huang |first1=W |last2=Ciochon |first2=R |last3=Gu |first3=Y |last4=Larick |first4=R |last5=Qiren |first5=F |last6=Schwarcz |first6=H |last7=Yonge |first7=C |last8=de Vos |first8=J |last9=Rink |first9=W. |display-authors=3 |year=1995 |title=Early ''Homo'' and associated artefacts from Asia |journal=Nature |volume=378 |issue=6554 |pages=275–278 |bibcode=1995Natur.378..275W |doi=10.1038/378275a0 |pmid=7477345 |s2cid=4352713}}</ref>

Early reports of these excavation in Chinese journals did not garner attention outside of China.<ref name="Culotta2">Culotta E. (1995). Asian Hominids Grow Older. Science, 270: (5239), 1116–1117. {{JSTOR|2889189}}</ref> In 1992, [[Russell Ciochon]] was invited to Longgupo to examine and provide a reliable age for the jaw. In 1995, Ciochon then published the findings in the journal ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]],'' which brought attention to the fossils on a global scale.<ref name="Huang2" />

=== Initial doubts ===
In a 1995 [[Science (journal)|Science]] report, several doubts about the specimens were raised. Upon seeing the specimens on a trip to China, [[Milford Wolpoff]] of the University of Michigan is not convinced that the partial jaw is a hominid. He believed that the fossils might have belonged of an orangutan or ''Pongo,'' based on the shape of the missing neighboring tooth of a preserved premolar. [[Jeffrey H. Schwartz|Jeffrey Schwartz]] and [[Ian Tattersall]] also published a claim in Nature that the teeth found in Longgupo were those of an [[orangutan]]. However, it was found that the teeth did not fit in the range of variation of those found in orangutans, which ruled out this possibility.

More recently, it had been argued that the jaw fragment was indistinguishable from Late [[Miocene]]-Pliocene Chinese apes of the genus ''[[Lufengpithecus]]''. The incisor was found to be more consistent with that of an East Asian person, who may have accidentally entered the fissure of the Longgupo Cave deposits because of natural forces such as flowing water.

==Retraction==
In the 18 June 2009 issue of [[Nature (journal)|Nature]], [[Russell Ciochon]] who first reported the jaw fragment from Longgupo as human,<ref name="Huang2" /> announced his retraction of the findings. He is convinced that the Longgupo fossil do not belong to a pre-erectus human, but rather to unknown apes that originated from primal forests in Pleistocene Southeast Asia. He mentioned that ''H. erectus'' arrived in Asia about 1.6 million years ago, but steered clear of the forest in pursuit of grassland game, which means that the pre-''erectus'' species did not appear in southeast Asia.<ref name="Ciochon2" />

Russell Ciochon no longer believes that ''Gigantopithecus'' and ''H. erectus'' coexisted in the same environment<ref name="Ciochon2" />—an argument he had previously made in his book 1990 ''Other Origins: The Search for the Giant Ape in Human Prehistory''.<ref>Ciochon RL. Olsen JW. James J. (1990). Other origins : the search for the giant ape in human prehistory New York: Bantam Books {{ISBN|978-0-553-07081-1}}</ref> He states: <blockquote>Without the assumption that ''Gigantopithecus'' and ''H. erectus'' lived together, everything changed: if early humans were not part of the ''Stegodon''–''Ailuropoda'' fauna, I had to envision a chimpanzee-sized ape in its place — either a descendant of ''Lufengpithecus'', or a previously unknown ape genus.<ref name="Ciochon2" /><sup>p. 911</sup></blockquote> A key factor in changing his opinion about the fossil was a 2005 visit to the [[Guangxi Natural History Museum]] in [[Nanning]], where he examined a large number of primate teeth from the Pleistocene.<ref name="Ciochon2" /> He believes that early humans hunted mammals on grasslands and did not live in sub-tropic forests that existed at Longgupo in that period, making it impossible for the set of fossils to have belonged to a human. While Russell Ciochon no longer believes the jaw to belonged to a human, he still claims that the two stone tools found with fossils were created by humans. However, according to him, "They must have been more recent additions to the site."<ref name="Ciochon2" /><sup>p.&nbsp;911</sup> 

Jeffrey Schwartz, one of the critics of the original claim, found Ciochon's retraction astonishing since it is not a common occurrence that a scientist announces a retraction after changing his mind, praising the openness as something positive. <ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Dalton | first1 = R.  | year = 2009 | title = News: Early man becomes early ape | journal = Nature | pages = 899 | pmid = 19536228 | volume = 459 | issue = 7249| doi=10.1038/459899a  | doi-access = free }}</ref>

==Importance==
The discovery of the Wushan Man and its related materials such as stone various vertebrate fossils, and stone artifacts such as cores, points, scrapers, drilling tools, etc. show evidence of human agency. This is important because it suggests that the creators of these tools have made the change from tool-using to tool-making.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Han |first1=Fei |last2=Bahain |first2=Jean-Jacques |last3=Deng |first3=Chenglong |last4=Boëda |first4=Éric |last5=Hou |first5=Yamei |last6=Wei |first6=Guangbiao |last7=Huang |first7=Wanbo |last8=Garcia |first8=Tristan |last9=Shao |first9=Qingfeng |last10=He |first10=Cunding |last11=Falguères |first11=Christophe |date=2017-04-01 |title=The earliest evidence of hominid settlement in China: Combined electron spin resonance and uranium series (ESR/U-series) dating of mammalian fossil teeth from Longgupo cave |journal=Quaternary International |series=Quaternary Biostratigraphy in East Asia: A Multidisciplinary Research Approach on Gigantopithecus Fauna and Human Evolution |language=en |volume=434 |pages=75–83 |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2015.02.025 |bibcode=2017QuInt.434...75H |issn=1040-6182|doi-access=free }}</ref>

According to Nature:<blockquote>The new evidence suggests that hominids entered Asia before 2 Myr, coincident with the earliest diversification of genus ''Homo'' in Africa. Clearly, the first hominid to arrive in Asia was a species other than true ''H. erectus'', and one that possessed a stone-based technology. A pre-''erectus'' hominid in China as early as 1.9 Myr provides the most likely antecedents for the ''in situ'' evolution of ''Homo erectus'' in Asia.<sup>p. 278</sup></blockquote>This makes its status as a ''Homo'' fossil critically important to the study of human origins as it suggests that ''H. erectus'' was not the first human species to leave Africa and supports the argument made by some that ''H. erectus'' evolved in Asia instead of Africa. The discovery of ''[[Homo floresiensis]]'' is significant to this theory of pre-''erectus'' [[hominin]] evolving in Asia. Recent research finds that its wrist and foot bones are anatomically like those of ''[[H. habilis]]'' or ''[[Australopithecus]]''. Evidence for pre-''erectus'' ''Homo'' in Asia would be consistent with such a possible origin.

A middle school textbook, ''The Chinese History'' (published by People's Education Press), has plans to include the discovery of "Wushan Man" as a part of its content.<ref>[http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/18929/ancient_wushan_man_written_into_history_textbook/ Ancient "Wushan Man" written into history textbook] (11 December 2003) EedOrbit</ref>

==See also==
* [[Lantian Man]]
* [[Peking Man]]
* [[Red Deer Cave people]]
* [[Tianyuan man]]
* [[Yuanmou Man]]
* [[Zhoukoudian]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{Human Evolution}}
{{Prehistoric technology}}

[[Category:Archaeology of China]]
[[Category:Early species of Homo]]
[[Category:Prehistoric China]]
[[Category:History of Chongqing]]