Exca­va­tions here from 1936 to 1941 led to the dis­cov­ery of the first hominid fos­sil at this site. Lat­er, 50 fos­sils of Megan­thro­pus palaeo and Pithecan­thro­pus erectus/Homo erec­tus were found &ndash, half of all the world‘s known hominid fos­sils. Inhab­it­ed for the past one and a half mil­lion years, San­gi­ran is one of the key sites for the under­stand­ing of human evo­lu­tion.