Nanjing Man is a Woman

Interesting facial reconstruction.  I wonder, if the people doing the reconstruction had chosen a "masculine" jawbone instead of a "feminine" one, would Nanjing Man still be a dude?  I was also much struck that this face is remarkably human, given the age of the fossil bones upon which it was reconstructed.  Nanjing woman is not depicted as an "ape-woman."  Only goes to shows how perceptions of human "evolution" have changed over time, as we get more enlightened on the subject.  Some day they'll get it right!  Posted at Women of China:

Experts Reconstruct Face of Ancient Woman

July 19, 2014
Editor: Amanda Wu

Experts have succeeded in giving a face to the ancient Nanjing Man from 300,000 years ago, but it's no man.

Based on the appearance of the reconstructed face, it has been identified as a woman about 30 years old, according to Zhao Chengwen, criminalist and archaeologist at the National Police University of China, which led the reconstruction work.

Zhao said the reconstruction was based on the No 1 skull of Nanjing Man, which lacked a lower jaw and right cheekbone.

Experts repaired the skull's defective parts on a computer, selected a lower jaw from skull banks to match it, and made up the base of the ancient Nanjing woman's face, Zhao added.

The reconstructed face is scheduled to be on exhibit in August in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, when the Youth Olympic Games are held in the city, according to an earlier report from Xinhua net.

Nanjing Man is a subspecies of Homo erectus found in China. Fossils of it were discovered in 1993 in Tangshan cave near Nanjing.

(Source: ECNS)