The foot metatarsal bone found this year is the only one unearthed in China, and it could provide important information in studying both how the ancients walked and their height, Wu said.
In addition, the finely crafted stone tools found at Hualongdong show the relatively high technical level of the Hualongdong cave people 300,000 years ago. They were very intelligent, and had evolved towards the stage of Homo sapiens, according to Wu.
“The Hualongdong humans were the earliest ancient humans in East Asia who exhibited the most characteristics of Homo sapiens, and were at a key turning point in the evolution from ancient humans towards modern humans. The Hualongdong site will provide a wealth of information on how modern humans evolved,” said Liu Wu, another researcher with the IVPP, who has conducted excavations at the site for more than a decade.