In memory of Academician Wu Xinzhi, and on the origin of mankind

On December 4, 2021, Wu Xinzhi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a paleoanthropologist, passed away in Beijing. I was really saddened to hear the news. It was a pity that the last defender of my country's paleoanthropology research had left. While mourning Academician Wu, let's talk about the academic contributions of Academician Wu Xinzhi that are memorable!

01. Wu Xinzhi, making those with opposing academic views stand in awe

As a person who was born into a biology family and is also a member of a molecular anthropology research group, it stands to reason that the academic views of my teacher and Academician Wu are opposite, because my teacher is descended from Tan Jiazhen, the founder of genetics, and we also follow the progress of molecular biology. After the international academic community proposed the theory of the African origin of humans, they completed the genetic proof of the theory of the African origin of Chinese ancestors (this part is mentioned at the end).

However, this does not affect my admiration for Academician Wu Xinzhi at all. Even the bigwigs in my school, although they do not agree with Academician Wu Xinzhi's academic views, still do not affect everyone's respect for Academician Wu Xinzhi. Why?

02. Wu Xinzhi, the last defender of the Chinese origin theory

When it comes to the origin of ancient humans, I believe you must be familiar with Yuanmou Man, Peking Man (the skull that unfortunately disappeared), Lantian Man, Xuchang Man and many other ancient humans that once appeared in China.

The earliest people who studied anthropology were often geologists and archaeologists. For example, the Institute of Paleoanthropology and Anthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, where Academician Wu worked, was the unit that excavated the skull of Peking Man. Bigwigs such as Pei Wenzhong laid the foundation for the later development of the Institute of Paleoanthropology, which was to study ancient humans from the perspective of fossils.

Mr. Wu is also like this. They have continued to excavate and study fossils and put forward the view of the continuity of ancient humans. Simply put: Chinese ape-man is produced by continuous evolution. The view of "continuous evolution with hybridization" means that Mr. Wu believes that Chinese ape-man continues to evolve, and may have hybridized with ape-men from Europe and Africa, but it is not the mainstream.

His conclusion is the continuity of fossils. By comparing ape-man skulls and fossils from different periods, Mr. Wu strengthened his point of view.

For example, teeth are a typical example.

Mr. Wu has been committed to research in this field and has obtained a lot of evidence, so he has become an authority in this field.

03. Persistence after being abandoned by mainstream theories

Actually, I still feel a little uncomfortable when I say this, but from an academic point of view, this is indeed the case, that is: this is an era in which the origin of mankind has been greatly subverted.

Before the birth of modern molecular biology, people all over the world firmly believed that humans in different places had independent origins. For example, the Chinese believed that their ancestors were Peking Man, and Europeans believed that their ancestors were Neanderthals. There was even a time when they fanatically pursued Neanderthal genes. Of course, this led to the pursuit of purebreds, which also caused some disasters.

However, all of this was put to rest in 1987, when a Nature article made a groundbreaking announcement that all previous evidence of ancient human origins based on archaeology was wrong.

The ancestors of humans are in Africa, and that’s only about 200,000 years ago, so this means that Peking Man, Neanderthals, etc. are not our direct ancestors at all. What’s going on?

As we all know, mitochondria are maternally inherited, which means that, in theory, mitochondria can be traced back to a common ancestor. So American geneticist Rebecca Cann and others decided to select humans from around the world, test their mitochondrial genes, and then trace them back.

The results surprised him. He analyzed the complete mitochondrial DNA sequences of 147 women from all over the world. The results showed that the phylogeny of the mtDNA haplotypes of all individuals showed African roots, that is, all African individuals can be divided into the oldest branch, L, and the L3 branch derived from the L branch includes some African individuals and mtDNA haplotype groups of all groups in other continents. Among them, all mtDNA lineages outside Africa derived from the L3 branch can be divided into two major branches, M and N.

This means that all people in the world come from Africa, and according to the molecular clock, this time is at most 200,000 years ago. The result at that time was earth-shattering and shocked the whole world.

The above is the article from that year.

The above picture shows the result of tracing ancestors. When this result came out, everyone naturally didn't believe it, so scientists from all over the world began to study it, and my country was no exception. Academician Zhang Yaping and Academician Jin Li are all research giants in this field.

The results, without exception, all show that the ancestors of people all over the world are from Africa, which has led to the picture that everyone likes to use today:

Later, with the advancement of sequencing technology, scientists have interpreted the Y chromosome, a male-specific inheritance, and the result is still the same: the male ancestors of the world are all from Africa. So academically, these two ancestors are called Eve and Adam.

Today, based on genetics, it is generally believed that humans originated in Africa and then gradually migrated along the coast to all parts of the world. This is our species, Homo sapiens.

Many problems were also solved.

For example, Neanderthals did live in Europe, but they were a different species from us.

For example, in Asia, there once existed another ancient human species called the Denisovans.

For example, there is some genetic exchange between us and Neanderthals (about 4%).

For example, human skin color has only appeared about ten thousand years ago.

There is evidence for other things, such as that American Indians came from Asia, that people migrated to Japan and South Korea from China, etc. Even the Yongjia Rebellion and the migration of Chinese people during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms have been reflected in molecular biology.

It can be said that this is the mainstream view at present, which is based on molecular anthropology.

04. The battle of opinions, the style of everyone

It can be said that Mr. Wu believes that there is a continuous lineage from Peking Man to the present, while modern molecular anthropology believes that Peking Man and us are two species, and we are Homo sapiens from Africa. Both sides admit that there was some communication, but it is not mainstream.

Although these two views are diametrically opposed, in recent years, molecular anthropology has basically had an overwhelming advantage.

However, both sides respect each other very much and have never slandered or suppressed each other.

We each work in our own fields. Mr. Wu is in archaeology, and we are in molecular biology. Generally speaking, we are on two different paths. However, Mr. Wu is a very great man. Therefore, we all respect him very much.

With the passing of Mr. Wu, the banner of ancient human research in the field of archaeology has fallen. It will be hard to see any giant in this field holding up this banner in the future. In addition, the Institute of Antiquity and Palaeontology has also introduced scientists who do molecular anthropology. It can be said that the Institute of Antiquity and Palaeontology will also delve deeper into the field of molecular anthropology and even reach the forefront.

In the future, perhaps we can only occasionally reminisce about the origin of mankind and think of the fact that there was once such a giant who adhered to the Chinese origin theory.

But no matter what, Mr. Wu’s contribution in this field cannot be erased, and history will give him very high praise. We cannot go back to the past, so everything is possible.

Finally, Mr. Wu, rest in peace!