A study has found that what scientists had thought were the oldest human fossils found in Japan are the bones of a brown bear.
Once known as the Ushikawa man, the fossils were found in the city of Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture in the late 1950s and named after the district it resided in. Study lead and a professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo’s University Museum Gen Suwa knew that suspicions about the fossils’ authenticity arose in the 1980s, and set out to investigate the matter with his team. They are publishing their research in the journal Anthropological Science. The findings illustrate how the remains are that of an ancient brown bear and not a human.
The most ancient human fossils in Japan turned out to be bear bones
“Podle nového výzkumu nejsou 20 000 let staré kosti “člověka z Ušikawy”, považované za jedny z nejstarších lidských fosilií v Japonsku, lidské. Jedná se o kosti dávného medvěda.”
Tak nejstarší známý Japonec byl medvěd…https://t.co/2rskNSQmp0
— Jiří X. Doležal (@jirixdolezal) January 16, 2025
While they suspected the possibility that they may be animal bones, they were not able to pinpoint what animal it was until this study. The researchers compared the bones of different bears using CT scans. They used 11 brown bear and 13 Asian black bear samples.
They concluded that, based on having the same shape and direction of curvature, the Ushikawa man fossils were the radius, or the forearm, and femoral head bone of a bear. Then the scientists examined the dating of the fossils, over 20,000 years old, analyzed the characteristics and locations of bears from that era, and concluded that the bones likely belonged to a brown bear.
Anthropological Advances
The discovery and analysis of these bones have considerably advanced the field of anthropology, even though it was discovered that these remains are not human, as previously believed.
“Although the ‘Ushikawa man’ remains were found to be nonhuman, their historical scientific significance as a contribution to the subsequent development of paleoanthropological research remains unchanged,” said the research team.
“It is also true that the discovery of the ‘Ushikawa man’ bones progressed anthropological research,” said Noboru Murakami, the museum’s head curator. “As bear bones more than 20,000 years old, they are also of great value as historical resources. The explanatory text of the replicas on display in the city will be updated in due course after a review.”
With the Ushikawa man no longer classified as human, the oldest Japanese human fossils are those found on the mainland. The remains were found in the city of Hamakita, which is about 25 miles east of Ushikawa. The bones are from different people dating back to anywhere between 14,000 to 17,000 years old and consist of human leg bone, arm bone, collar bone, and skull.