China to build park at prehistoric hominid excavation site

ZHENGZHOU -- A park will be built at the excavation site of a species of prehistoric humans discovered in Central China's Henan province.

The park will be located in Lingjing village in Xuchang city, where cranial fossil remains of Xuchang humans from around 100,000 years ago were first unearthed in 2007, according to the city government.

With a planned area of 2.2 square kilometers, the park designed for preservation, research and tourism is expected to open in 2020.

Xuchang humans lived between Peking Man (about 200,000 and 700,000 years ago) and early modern humans in north China (about 40,000 years ago), proving the continuity of human evolution in north China.

Studies on cranial remains found that Xuchang humans might have been hybrids of the indigenous population and Europeans and were very likely direct ancestors of modern northern Chinese, according to a report published in "Science" magazine in early March.

It was the first time fossils bearing characteristics of the Neanderthals had been found in east Asia. So far, 45 pieces of cranial remains have been excavated from an area of 500 square meters at the site.

The park will be Henan's fourth state-level archaeological park.