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  • Japan’s ‘Ushikawa Man’ Mystery Solved: Fossils Belong To This Creature, Not A Human

Japan’s ‘Ushikawa Man’ Mystery Solved: Fossils Belong To This Creature, Not A Human

The 20,000-year-old "Ushikawa Man" fossils, long considered one of Japan's oldest human remains, were revealed to be actually ancient bear bones. Decades of misidentification have finally been resolved by new research that utilizes CT scans to reshape Japan's prehistoric narrative.

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Japan’s ‘Ushikawa Man’ Mystery Solved: Fossils Belong To This Creature, Not A Human

Japan’s 'Ushikawa Man' Mystery Solved: Fossils Belong To This Creature, Not A Human


Ushikawa fossils were once glorified as one of the most important human finds from prehistoric Japan, but, recent studies that appear in Anthropological Science finally reveal the discovery as being actually part of an ancient bear.

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It is dated in the late 1950s and excavated from the Ushikawa district in Toyohashi as bones attributed to man when it should be, a brown bear, or Ursus arctos.

The fossils were initially believed to be the humerus and femur of a human who lived more than 20,000 years ago. At the time, they were considered one of Japan’s earliest examples of human habitation. However, doubts about their human origins began to surface in the 1980s.

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Recently, Suwa and his colleagues revisited the fossils, employing high-technology techniques like CT scans and detailed visual analysis to check on their earlier claims. The humerus was confirmed to be a radius of a bear’s forearm, while the femur belonged to a bear.

Suwa pointed out that in the 1950s, paleontologists had a limited understanding of fossil bear bones, which led to the misclassification. That aside, he praised the scientists of that time for the comprehensive documentation and detailed accounts of the fossils.

Redetermination Of Japan’s Prehistory Story

The Ushikawa fossils are not the first major misclassification in Japan’s archaeological history. Another fossil, known as “Akashi Man,” was believed to be over 780,000 years old. However, this discovery was lost during World War II, and later studies of a plaster cast suggested it was likely a modern human bone misplaced in a different geological layer.

The re-evaluation of Akashi Man set off a series of re-evaluations on other ancient findings, such as Ushikawa Man, and eventually categorized the latter as remains of a bear.

Oldest Human Fossils In Japan’s Mainland

Now that the fossils found at Ushikawa are confirmed as bear bones, the title for the oldest human remains confirmed in Japan’s mainland is held by a find outside Hamakita, about 25 miles to the east of Ushikawa.

It was discovered inside a limestone quarry, and what they found include parts of leg bone, an arm bone, collarbone, and skull fragments. They trace the fossils from two individuals believed to have been around 14,000-17,000 years ago.

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