Dialogue with Academician Zhu Min, searching for the human ancestor 440 million years ago

Are humans' ancestors fish?

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology

Academician Zhu Min's team

Recently, a number of

About 440 million years ago

Early Silurian fish fossils

Filling the gap in the evolutionary history from fish to humans

The missing link

British magazine Nature

In the form of a cover article

Four academic papers of the team were published at the same time

(Cover selected by the British magazine Nature)

Behind a series of new discoveries

What little-known stories are there?

Humans and ancient fish ancestors

What kind of wonderful connection is there?

…

With many questions

Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Yang

About the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology

Start a conversation with Academician Zhu Min

A journey of exploration spanning billions of years

5 fish

A key puzzle piece to fill in the gaps in human evolutionary history

Including humans, 99.8% of the vertebrates on Earth have jaws. The emergence and rise of jawed animals is one of the most critical leaps in the history of vertebrate evolution from fish to humans. However, there is a huge gap in the early evolution of jawed animals that lasted at least 30 million years.

Academician Zhu Min's team discovered the "Chongqing Special Buried Fossil Repository" and the "Guizhou Shiqian Fossil Repository" in the early Silurian strata about 440 million years ago in Chongqing, Guizhou and other places. They not only provided definite evidence for the rise and earliest radiation differentiation of jawed vertebrates for the first time, but also presented a rich and diverse "aquarium" of the early Silurian period to the world.

Zhu Min said that the five fish announced to the world this time - the newly sculpted Fanjingshan fish, the miracle Xiushan fish, the double-row Qiantooth fish, the vermicular Shen's stickleback fish, and the agile Tujia fish - have changed people's understanding of the past and filled the gaps in human evolutionary history.

Using technology to restore an "underwater kingdom"

According to Academician Zhu Min's team, our fish ancestors were actually very small, only about 3 centimeters long.

In order to allow the public to more intuitively understand the research results, Academician Zhu Min and his team used 3D animation to restore the living conditions of this group of ancient fish from more than 400 million years ago.

The Luck and Perseverance of “Time Travelers”

The reconstruction of the fascinating ancient world is inseparable from groups of paleontologists who have been sleeping in the open air and exploring in the wild all year round, and it is also inseparable from the ancient fish fossils that may be smaller than a thumb.

Zhu Min said that he was lucky because the new discovery exceeded his and his colleagues' expectations. At the same time, it was also the result of his and his team's hard work and persistence: among more than 4 tons of field rock samples, they went through a series of procedures and selected a little bit at a time before finally discovering our human ancestor.

Zhu Min said that the most fascinating thing about paleontology is its "uncertainty", which attracts him and his team to continue exploring in the wild - and the final research results are the success accumulated from countless failures.

Time for them

It is fleeting

It is also a long-lasting flow

now

More and more ancient fish

In the unremitting pursuit of Academician Zhu Min's team

Gradually revealing his true identity

The once grand and magnificent "Ancient Fish Kingdom"

Paleontologists are

Expanding boundaries and imagination step by step

Source: Xinhuanet