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About 2,200 years ago , the subjects of Chinese emperor Wen sacrificed a giant coon bear and a tapir and bury their cadaver near the rule ’s grave in Xi’an , China , new research regain .
The discovery of the tapir skeleton surprised archaeologist , as it suggests that this animal — whose range no longer include China — may have lived in the part during ancient time , the researchers say . While tapir dodo go out back over 100,000 year are sleep with from China , the animals were thought to be extinct in the state before 2,200 years ago .
Excavation near the mausoleum site is ongoing, with the animal sacrifices being the latest discovery.
There are five metal money of tapir alive today ; the newfound remain appear to be from the Malayan tapir ( Tapirus indicus ) , also known as the Malay tapir or Asiatic tapir . A fully farm Malayan tapir can be 6 to 8 foot ( 1.8 to 2.4 meter ) long and weigh between 550 and 704 Irish pound ( 250 to 320 kilograms),according to the Denver Zoo . grownup have a distinctive ignominious - and - white design .
Today , Malayan tapirs are endangered ; fewer than 2,500 ripe soul exist , and the metal money is found in the wild only in parts of Southeast Asia , such as Malaysia and Thailand , the International Union for Conservation of Naturereports .
touch on : Ancient Chinese grave hold remains of warriors possibly bury live
Part of the mausoleum of Emperor Wen. Recently, archaeologists have excavated sacrificial pits near the site, revealing a variety of animal remains.
Sacrificial pits
Archaeologists excavated 23 pits arrest ancient animal sacrifices near the tomb of Emperor Wen ( reign circa 180 B.C. to 157 B.C. ) between August 2021 and August 2022 , a squad led bySongmei Hu , an archaeologist with the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology , write in apaperpublished on the China Social Sciences internet research database .
In add-on to the skeleton of the giant panda ( Ailuropoda melanoleuca ) and tapir , the team found the remains of Bibos gaurus ( a species of bison ) , tigers , green peafowl ( also shout out green peacocks ) , yaks , gold snub - nosed monkeys and gnu goat ( goat - like creature ) , among other brute buried near Wen ’s tomb . These species still exist in China , but some are near extinction .
While the discovery is the first forcible evidence of a tapir survive in China at this time , ancient documents have suggest at their presence in the country . delineation of animals that bet like tapir are found in ancient Formosan art , and ancient accounts describing what come along to be tapir are know from ancient text edition .
Malayan tapirs, with their distinctive patterns, can be seen here. Their range no longer includes China, but the new discovery suggests that these animals lived in the country 2,200 years ago.
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The finding is proof that tapir once roamed this part of China , according toDonald Harper , the centenary prof of Taiwanese studies at the University of Chicago , who was not involved in the new research .
" Prior to the Modern uncovering , there was no grounds of the tapir populate the geographical area of China in diachronic time , only prehistorical fossil remains , " Harper tell Live Science in an e-mail . " Emperor Wen ’s tapir is the first upstanding evidence of the tapir ’s comportment in ancient China in historic fourth dimension . "
The archaeologists who excavate the grave did not return requests for gossip by the time of issue .
