Abstract:

The Hualongdong site (Hualongdong Loc.1) in Dongzhi County, Anhui Province is the most important fossil site of mid-Pleistocene Homo found in China in recent years. The Hualongdong site was discovered in 1988 and has undergone 9 formal excavations in 2006, 2014~2016, 2017~2019 and 2023 respectively. The mammalian fossils unearthed during the periods 2014~2016 have been preliminarily reported; Since 2017 onward, a large number of mammal fossils have been discovered, and more species have been added to the fauna list: Rhinopithecus sp., Canis sp., Ailuropoda wulingshanensis, Panthera pardus, Neofelis nebulosa, Prionailurus kurteni, Prionodon hualongensis, Paguma larvata, Urva urva, Crocuta ultima, Equus sp., Stephanorhinus sp., Rusa unicorlor, Hydropotes sp. and Capricornis sp. At present, there are as many as 93 species, including undetermined species of mammals have been recognized from the Hualongdong site. More and more complete fossil specimens have been added to the previously reported genera and species, such as the Ursus thibetanus, Ailuropoda baconi, Panthera tigris, Sus lydekkeri, Cervus grayi, and Bos (Bibos) sp., among which Sus lydekkeri and Bos (Bibos) sp. have the largest body sizes for their kinds ever known. The fossils of brown bear (Ursus arctos), horse (Equus sp.), Lydekker's pig (Sus lydekkeri) and giant deer (Sinomegaceros sp.) from Hualongdong represent the southernmost occurrence of their kinds in eastern China, and they are more frequently recovered in the northern faunas. The age of the fauna of the Hualongdong site is complicated by the discovery of the fossil of Ailuropoda wulingshanensis, because this species was only found in the late Early Pleistocene sites, which is obviously inconsistent with the formation time (ca. 300 ka) of the Hualongdong site as currently dated. The explanation for this phenomenon is most likely due to the collapse and re-accumulation of the original cave deposits, resulting in a mixture of old and new strata. The dominant species of the Hualongdong fauna are gaurs and diverse cervids, which are very similar to those of the Bailongdong fauna in Hubei Province. The Hualongdong fauna is different from that of the nearby Hexian Man Site in the lackness of gaurs in the latter. In general, the dominant species of the Hualongdong fauna is comparable to the Ailuropoda-Stegodon fauna of Middle Pleistocene in southern China, but with a few invaders from the North, which suggests a relatively cold substage at which the Hualongdong Man once experienced. The Hualongdong fauna is different from the Late Pleistocene fauna of southern China, the latter is usually dominated by the Sus scrofa-cervids assemblage.

Key words: New fossils, mammals, Hualongdong, Middle Pleistocene