Hualong Cave

Hualong Cave (simplified Chinese: 华龙洞; traditional Chinese: 華龍洞; pinyin: huálóng dòng; lit. 'flowery/elegant dragon cave') is a cave in Pangwang village in Dongzhi County, Anhui Province, China, and situated on the southern bank of Yangtze. It is located on the side of Meiyuan Hill. Palaeontological interest started in 2004 when a farmer accidentally found bones that were later identified as mammalian fossils. Excavations started in 2006 by paleontologists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It has yielded many stone tools and over 30 human fossils, and animal bones including those of Ailuropoda, Arctonyx, Bubalus, Sinomegaceros, Stegodon, giant tapir, and giant pandas. The most notable fossils are those of the Hualongdong people, including Homo erectus (dubbed Dongzhi Man) described in 2014, and that of a 300,000-year-old archaic human discovered in 2019.