Research: ancestors of humans may have originated in central China

Photo shows the Eosimiid fossil site in Mianchi County of central China's Henan Province.

A monument was set up in the Eosimiid fossil site in Mianchi County of central China's Henan Province on Wednesday.

Research has shown that remote ancestors of humans may have lived at the site 45 million years ago, according to the publicity department of Sanmenxia City, which administrates Mianchi County.

From 1985 to 1994, Eosimiid fossils dating back to 45 million years, with characteristics of higher primates, were found in Rencun Village in the county.

Before the finding, the world's oldest known higher primate fossils could be traced back 35 million years and were found in Fayum region in North Africa.

The finding of the Eosimiid fossils in Mianchi has pushed back the origin of anthropoids by 10 million years. Some paleoanthropologists now believe that Yuanqu-Mianchi Basin is one of the origin areas of the oldest human ancestors.

Eosimiid fossils have been found in Henan, Jiangsu, Shanxi and Yunnan provinces and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in China.

Dr. Ni Xijun from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who produced an ecological restoration of the Eosimiids recently, said the Yuanqu-Mianchi Basin is internationally recognized as one of the origin places of remote human ancestors.