A REVIEW OF THE QUATERNARY GEOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE IN ZHOUKOUDIAN, BEIJING

This paper is a review of the Quaternary geology,environmental change,palaeoanthropology and archeology made during the last 80 years in Zhoukoudian area,Beijing,and gives superficial suggestions deeply to research on the Quaternary geology,environment and palaeoanthropology in this area.For the last 80 years,in Zhoukoudian area many fossils of Homo erectus pekinensis, early Homo sapiens and late Homo sapiens were found;a lot of old stone artifacts were collected;the Quaternary stratigraphical sequence was set up;the ice wedges of the Early pleistocene were discovered and the Taipingshan Cold Age was named;the three circles of the warm-cold fluctuations in the Middle Pleistocene were recognized.The last researches show that it is very important to search for the new Early Pleistocene fossil localities,to study on the evolution and social behavior of "Peking man",to research on the environmental change for the Quaternary period,and to yield a stratigraphic sequence of the biotic-climatic events in Zhoukoudian area in the future.