【摘要】 元谋人到底生活在冰期寒冷气候环境中还是生活在温暖的气候环境中?这是近几年来对云南元谋盆地进行第四纪地质、古生物研究提出的问题之一。地质学家、孢粉学家、哺乳动物学家根据自己的研究各自提出不同的看法。本文从元谋哺乳动物化石的组成、生态、动物地理分布等方面分析,认为元谋的哺乳动物,包括元谋人,生活在温暖的亚热带气候的自然景观中。这一结论和孢粉分析的结果大致相符。更多还原

【Abstract】 Up to the present,Yuanmou Man is a unique representative of early PleistoceneHomo erectus in China.Concerning the physical feature of Yuanmou Man,his age,relative and absolute,his stratigraphical and paleontological correlation,certain impor-tant results have been achieved.As regards the living environment of Yuanmou Manthere are different opinions.Some authors maintain that Yuanmou Man lived in aglacial condition,the others do not agree with them.The present authors try to discussthe interesting problem,using the vertebrate paleontological achievements.In “The Quaternary glaciation and strata in the Yuanmou basin” published in1977,Qian Fang et al.considered the Yuanmou formation as an interglacial deposit andasserted that there happened many undulations of climate in the Yuanmou interglacialas indicated by an analysis of palynology and it showed a general tendency to transi-tion from tropical,subtropical to temperate,frigid or to change from moist to semiarid.In course of deposition of the Yuanmou formation,the climate became gradually cold.It predicted(showed)a new glacial age had arrived.They had a contradiction interms back and forth.Though that the Yuanmou formation totally belongs to aninterglacial received their assent,Qian et al.concluded Yuanmou Man lived in a glacialsevere climate.In 1977,Pu and Qian published another article “Study on the fossil humanstrata——the Yuanmou formation”.In conclusion,they distinctly assigned the Lushan-Yuanmou interglacial age to member Ⅰ and member Ⅱ,and the Yuanmou glacial ageto member Ⅲ and member Ⅳ,equivalent to the Danube glacial age in Europeansequence.Unfortunately,at a symposium concerning the Quaternary glaciation and geologyheld at Lushan in 1978,Sun,M.R.et al.proclaimed that Pu and Qian had wronglycited material from their palynological study and a mistaken conclusion on paleovegeta-tion and paleoclimate had been deduced from the material by Pu and Qian.Sun et alpointed out that there are 5 sporo-pollen assemblages in the Yuanmou formation.All the five assemblages reflect the subtropical evergreen broad-leaf forest landscape.Though there happened certain undulation of climate and the forest elements wereundiscontinuously changing,yet the subtropical broad-leaf forest nature of vegetationseemed to be lasting.Thus Sun et al.considered that the above mentioned five assem-blages belong to an interglacial age.Now what has the study of mammalian fossils to say in answer to the difference(?)Describing fossil mammals from Yuanmou,Lin et al.(1978)maintained that theYuanmou fauna lived in a moderate moist grassland-forest condition,in which grassland-shrub wood lands predominated.From bottom to top the Yuanmou formation seems torepresent a gradually transitional ecological environment from forest-grassland type tograssland-forest type.According to Lin et al.the Yuanmou fauna consists of 40 forms including:1)Tertiary survivals such as Machairodus,Nestoritherium,Eostylocerus,Metacervulus,Procapreolus etc.which remind the Yushe fauna from Shanxi;2)early Pleistoceneelements such as Camis yuanmoensis,Stegodon zhaotongensis,Stegodon yuanm(?)nsis,Rusa stehlini,Hyaena licenti,Ochotonides complicidens,Axis shansius,Axis cf.rugosusetc.the latter 4 forms were also found in the early Pleistocene fauna of North China;3)a certain forms such as Viverricula,Rhinoceros sinensis,Rhizomys,Hystrix recall thatof the Ailuropoda-Stegodon fauna;4)living forms such as Sus scrofa,Panthera tigris,Panthera pardus and Hystrix subcristata.Judging from the fossil assemblage,thepresent authors agree with Colbert,Pei,Hu,Lin et al.in that the Yuanmou fauna maybe dated to the early Pleistocene.Ecologically,fossil mammals from member Ⅰ mostly used to live in the subtropicaldense forest or parkland,it reflects a predominant subtropical forest condition.Stego-donts are principal fossils in member Ⅱ which comprises Hyaena used to live in thetropical and subtropical grassland or desert shrub areas.It may mean that this memberformed in a hotter,damper climate in which might once happen certain dryness.Member Ⅲ increased in forms of mammalian fossils.Among the collection Cynailurusis a running grassland carnivore and used to live in the thicket or parkland areas.In this member herbivorous animals possess almost the half of fossil mammals,butforest animals became less than in member Ⅱ.It seems possible that the climate mightbe drier,but fossil mammals show a subtropical nature.Of fossil mammals in memberⅣ the Tertiary survivals possess about one third.Must of fossil mammals used toinhabit in the subtropical forest or parkland areas.Fossil mammals of member Ⅳ arecharacterized by the predominance of herbivorous animals.In view of the live andhabits of mammals, generally,it reflects a subtropical climate.The above mentioned analysis,by and large,coincides with the palynological studyby Sun et al.Zoographically,the Yuanmou fauna consists of the following elements:1)thoselive in the Oriental region,such as Rhizomys,Hystrix,Viverricula,Cynailurus,Rhino-ceros sincnsis,Muntiacus,Axis,Rusa and Bibos;2)those bear wide adaptation andspread both in North China and in South China,such as Microtus,Arvicola,Vulpes,Felis,Panthera tigris,Panthera pardus,Gazella and Sus scrofa;3)the Tertiarysurvivals;4)those might comparatively adapted themselves to the temperate climate,e.g.Trogontherium,Ochotonoides complicidens.As a whole,the forms adapted themselves to the moderate climate predominate in the Yuanmou fauna.Though a fewelements might live in the temperate zone,it is insufficient to be proved to have beena cold climate.It is possible that in the long period by which the Yuanmou formationdeposited certain undulation of climate took place as demonstrated by the mammalianand palynological evidences:The Tertiary survivals of the Yuanmou fauna recall theHipparion fauna wide-spread in Eurasia.Generally speaking,the Hipparion faunalived in the rather warm tropical,subtropical forest-grassland,grassland or forest-bushing broad valleys.The presence of many Tertiary forms proves that the environ-ment by which the Yuanmou fauna lived is similar to the pliocene tropical-subtropicalclimatic condition.In addition,the presence of the elements of the Ailuropoda-Stegodon fauna also shows that the paleoenvironment in the Yuanmou basin is somewhatclose to the present landscape.Finally,we conclude our opinion with a remark that the Yuanmou faunaincluding Homo erectus yuanmoensis lived in a subtropical climatic natural landscape,and the study of vertebrate paleontology and palynology does not support the hypo-thesis of having a cold glacial climate in the Yuanmou formation.更多还原