最早的古人类化石在达尔文提出进化论之前已经出土了,随后新的化石不断发现,到现在为止,人们已经能根据化石大体勾画出从猿到人的进化脉络了。在这些古人类化石中,有些当时就引起了轰动,有些虽然在发现的时候没有引起重视,但是后来的发现确定了其重要的地位。1856年,在德国尼安德特谷的一个洞穴中发现了一块古人类头骨和若干体骨的化石,这是古人类化石的第一个重要发现。 The earliest ancient human fossils had been unearthed before Darwin put forward the theory of evolution. Subsequently, new fossils were discovered. Until now, people have been able to roughly outline the evolution from apes to humans based on fossils. Some of these ancient human fossils caused a stir at that time, and some did not pay much attention when they were discovered. However, their subsequent discovery has confirmed their important position. In 1856, an ancient human skull and several bony fossils were found in a cave in the German Neandertal Valley, the first major discovery of ancient human fossils.