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For the past 20 years the modern human origins debate has received a significant amount of attention in paleoanthropological
research. Primarily supported by the evidence of earlier dates of anatomically modern human fossils and genetic studies, the
“Out of Africa” hypothesis is based on the belief that the ancestor of all modern humans, including...
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... Fig. 5. The Huanglong Cave assemblage is representative of the oriental fauna typical of the mid- dle and late Pleistocene of South China. The faunal composition indicates both tropical and sub-tropical forest environments. For example, Neofelis nebulosa is the representative of tree-living animals in sub-tropical forests [9] , and Belomys ...
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■ Palaeoanthropology — the study of hominin evolution — has features which differentiate it from most other sciences. It has long been characterized by the announcement of a dramatic discovery of fossil hominin remains — often following a long and arduous process of field exploration. Commonly this has been accompanied by naming a new species, or e...
This paper reports on the fifth season of fieldwork for the Palaeoanthropology part of the Desert Migrations Project. Previous seasons established an extensive archaeological map based on a wide survey of the rich record along the edges of the Ubari Sand Sea, a small area of the Messak Settafet, the Wadi al-Ajal, the Wadi ash-Shati and the Wadi Bar...
We report on the taxonomy and paleodiet of the bear population that inhabited the emblematic palaeoanthropological Early Pleistocene (1.8 Ma) site of Dmanisi (Georgia), based on a dual approach combining morphometrics and microwear of upper and lower teeth. Given that the teeth of Ursus etruscus Cuvier, 1823 from Dmanisi show considerable size vari...
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The Herto study area (geologically identified as the Herto Member of the Bouri Formation), lies in the Middle Awash, Afar Rift of Ethiopia (10.27° N; 40.52° E). Archaeological research by the Middle Awash research project began on the Bouri peninsula in 1981 (Clark et al., 1984). Project efforts were initially focused on the older deposits of the B...
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... In addition, the Huanglong Cave and Changyang Cave sites were occupied during the Late Pleistocene. In the Huanglong Cave site, the U-series ages of two rhinoceros teeth coeval with the hominin fossils are about 0.095 and 0.079 Ma [87], the U-series ages of a stalagmite is about 0.103 Ma, and the ESR age of a rhinoceros tooth is about 0.044 Ma [88]). The subsequent U-series age is about 0.1-0.057 ...
The Qinling Mountain Range (QMR), where more than 500 hominin fossils and Paleolithic sites have been preserved, was a major center of hominin evolution and settlement and an important link for the hominin migration and dispersal between the north and the south during the Pleistocene in China. The rich culture remains and the related data make it possible and meaningful to study the characteristics and mechanisms of hominin occupation and dispersal in the region. This paper has summarized and analyzed the geographical distributions and chronologies of 55 dated hominin fossils and Paleolithic sites in the QMR to date. By combining them with the evidence from the loess–paleosol sequence, a relatively continuous and chronological sequence of hominin occupation and dispersal has been established, in which we have identified five stages, viz. ~before 1.2 Ma, the sporadic occurrence stage of early hominin occupation; ~1.2–0.7 Ma, the initial expansion stage; ~0.7–0.3 Ma, the stability and maintenance stage; ~0.3–0.05 Ma, the large-scale expansion stage; ~0.05–0.01 Ma, the sharp decline stage of the record of hominin occupation. We conclude that the environmental and ecosystem changes associated with the MPT drove early hominins to disperse southwards across the QMR. In addition, the evidence suggests that the hominin occupation and dispersal here was broadly continuous during both glacial and interglacial scales from early to late Pleistocene, and that the southern QMR provided a glacial refuge.
... The estimated divergence between Neofelis species (1.39 to 3.27 Ma) agrees with the previous estimates based on both nuclear and mitochondrial datasets (1, 15) but challenges a recent study (25). The earliest clouded leopard fossils are reported from late the Pleistocene and Holocene (3) of Southeast Asia and Central China (26). Glacial movements during the early Pleistocene (2.6 to 2.0 Ma) led to great changes in Southeast Asia's climate. ...
Clouded leopards ( Neofelis spp.), a morphologically and ecologically distinct lineage of big cats, are severely threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, targeted hunting, and other human activities. The long-held poor understanding of their genetics and evolution has undermined the effectiveness of conservation actions. Here, we report a comprehensive investigation of the whole genomes, population genetics, and adaptive evolution of Neofelis . Our results indicate the genus Neofelis arose during the Pleistocene, coinciding with glacial-induced climate changes to the distributions of savannas and rainforests, and signatures of natural selection associated with genes functioning in tooth, pigmentation, and tail development, associated with clouded leopards’ unique adaptations. Our study highlights high-altitude adaptation as the main factor driving nontaxonomic population differentiation in Neofelis nebulosa . Population declines and inbreeding have led to reduced genetic diversity and the accumulation of deleterious variation that likely affect reproduction of clouded leopards, highlighting the urgent need for effective conservation efforts.
... Most of the Late Pleistocene faunas coexisted with Homo sapiens, and the representative fossil sites include Huanglong cave in Hubei Province (Wu et al. 2006), Daoxian in Hunan (Li et al. 2013), Zhiren cave (Jin et al. 2009a), Luna cave (Bae et al. 2014), Liujiang (Wu 1959) and Ganqian (Li et al. 1984) in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. ...
Yanlidong is a cave site in southern China where a diversity of vertebrate palaeontological fossils were recently discovered. Our previous study showed that the Yanlidong sediments can be divided into an early stage and a late stage. Here, we report our analysis of the mammal fossils from the deposits of the Early Stage in Yanlidong (DES-YLD). The age of DES-YLD is constrained to around 600 ka by Uranium-series dating on fossil teeth and layered flowstones. The fauna is characterised by the occurrence of extant taxa plentifully, but also a number of extinct species. Our paleoenvironmental and taphonomic analysis of the DES-YLD fauna indicates that the local environment was covered by subtropical forest and located in a shrub environment near water and rodents were largely responsible for the accumulation and modification of the macromammal remains. The findings from YLD serve to fill an important gap in the Early Middle Pleistocene of southern China. Besides the reconstructions of the paleoenvironment, it is interesting to observe that a large number of Early Pleistocene extinct taxa were replaced by species during the Early Middle Pleistocene that are still extant today. This faunal turnover may be related to the global Middle Pleistocene climate transition.
... This pattern may be driven by the paleoclimatic variation during the Early and early Middle Pleistocene and the ability to transport portable water. In the last two decades, some new hominin sites were discovered successively in the western Hubei and TGR (e.g., Huanglong Cave, Leiping, Migong, and Caotang sites) (Liu et al., , 2010Wu et al., 2006;Shen et al., 2013), more detailed excavation and dating works of the sites are still in progress. In a word, we believe that the TGR in central China which found abundant hominin sites from the Early Pleistocene to the Late Pleistocene may not only be the migration corridor of hominins and other mammals between southern and northern China, but probably also a diffusion center for the Middle and Late Pleistocene Homo appeared in the north and east of China ( Figure 5). ...
The Three Gorges region (TGR) located in the geographic center of China, is a transition zone between mountain and plain areas, and a probable migration corridor for hominins and other mammals between South and North China. Detailed chronological information of paleoanthropological evidence in this area could help us better understand the human evolution in East Asia. The OSL and U-series dating methods are two conventional dating methods generally adopted to date such sites; however, their applications were limited by the dating range—restricted to several hundred of millennia and ambiguous stratigraphic relationship between the archaeological remains and the dating target materials. Cosmogenic nuclide burial dating of quartzite stone artifacts and coupled electron spin resonance and uranium series dating (ESR/U-series) of fossil teeth have the potential to date Early–Middle Pleistocene hominin sites in Asia and were applied increasingly in China in recent years. However, the application of cosmogenic ²⁶Al/¹⁰Be burial dating is limited in TGR because most sites are dominated by limestone, leading to the scarcity of the quartz component. In this case, the coupled ESR/U-series method plays a more important role in the establishment of the chronology of human settlement. In TGR, by using the coupled ESR/U-series method, we have dated seven important Early and Middle Pleistocene hominin settlement sites, including Longgupo, Jianshi, Yunxian, Meipu, Bailongdong, Changyang, and Yumidong sites. Based on our dating results, we propose that hominins were settled in TGR probably from the early stage of Early Pleistocene (∼2.5−2.2 Ma) at the Longgupo site to the late Middle Pleistocene to Late Pleistocene of the Yumidong site (∼274−14 ka) and very likely to spread to other parts of East Asia during this time period. In view of the potential of coupled ESR/U-series dating on fossil teeth from the hominin sites in the TGR, future work may consider the micro damage or non-destructive analysis of enamel fragment with the ESR method and laser ablation ICP-MS techniques that will make possible the direct dating of precious human fossils in China.
... The hominin fossils and abundant stone artifacts from these sites are crucial in understanding human migration and the development of the Paleolithic industry in Asia (Hou et al., 2000;Bae, 2010;Liu et al., 2010Liu et al., , 2015Li et al., 2017;Xia et al., 2018). The Yangtze River Valley, especially the tributary Hanjiang River Valley, which has several Paleolithic sites, is an important area in the Paleolithic culture of South China (Huang et al., 1987;Li and Etler, 1992;Wu et al., 2006;Li and Sun, 2013;Li et al., 2014;Wang et al., 2014;Tang et al., 2018;Xia et al., 2018). Most of these sites belong to the lower and middle Paleolithic period and are older than 50 ka (Chen et al., 1997;Sun et al., 2012Sun et al., , 2016Wang and Lu, 2016;Li et al., 2016). ...
The Jigongshan (JGS) Paleolithic site in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River has two different cultural layers, namely, the upper (flake-tool industry) and lower (cobble-tool industry) cultural layers. JGS site is also among the few upper Paleolithic sites in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River with an absolute age. Peking University has performed a preliminary ¹⁴C dating at the site and found that the upper culture layer is approximately 10–20 ka, whereas the lower layer is older than 50 ka. To date the lower culture layer precisely, the standard quartz single-aliquot regenerative (SAR) dose-based optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and thermally transferred OSL (TT-OSL) methods were used in this study. Results showed that the age of the upper culture layer is approximately 23 ± 2–38 ± 3 ka, whereas that of the lower culture layer is approximately 115 ± 9–149 ± 9 ka. The ¹⁴C and OSL dating methods showed huge differences in their results for the lower culture layer. Based on our dating results, we propose that the main part of the upper culture layer corresponds to the late MIS 3 to the early MIS 2 stages during the glacial period in L1 unit in the Chinese loess sequence, whereas the lower culture layer corresponds to the late MIS 6 and the early MIS 5 stages during both glacial and interglacial periods in the upper L2 and the lower S1 units. A cultural gap of nearly 100 ka was observed between these two cultural layers; this gap is larger than what was expected.
... [42] 和 143~196 ka [43] , 次生碳酸盐U系年代为233~257 ka [43] , [ 4 5 ] , 碳酸盐U系年代为 103~104 [44] 和81~101 ka [46] , ESR年代为44 ka [47] , 我们最 图 4 我国28处应用两种以上测年方法古人类遗址的测年结果对比与差异 Figure 4 Analysis and comparison of the dating results from 28 human fossil sites using more than two (including two) dating methods [48] , 炭屑 14 C年代为11.5~14.3 ka [49] , 存在很大分歧. ...
... Seven human teeth have been discovered from Huanglong cave in Yunxi, northern Hubei Province, dating to about 100-70 ka that were found in association with some lithics. However, only a preliminary study of the associated lithic assemblage has been published (Wu et al., 2006;Liu et al., 2010b). A few artifacts have been reported from the early Late Pleistocene Luna Cave in Bubing Basin, Guangxi that has two human teeth, though no detailed study has been conducted Bae, 2017). ...
The applicability of the three stage Paleolithic sequence (Lower, Middle, Upper) in eastern Asia that is used in the western Old World has long been a debated issue. The crux of the discussion is whether a distinct “Middle Paleolithic” (“MP”) is present in the eastern Asian record, especially north China. Recently, the artifacts from the Lingjing site (2005–2016), in northern China, have been argued to be potential representative of a “Chinese Middle Paleolithic” (“CMP”). In this paper, we introduce a thorough analysis on a newly discovered lithic assemblage from the 2017 excavation of the Lingjing site. We found that simple free-hand hard hammer percussion is the dominant core reduction strategy with only a very small frequency of atypical, bi-conical discoidal cores. When considering other contemporary sites in northern China (e.g., Xujiayao and Banjingzi), Lingjing belongs to a small tool tradition that is widespread throughout northern China. The Lingjing artifacts do display some obvious differences in core reduction and lithic retouching techniques from those typical of the Lower/Early Paleolithic (or Mode 1) assemblage pre-40 ka in the Chinese Paleolithic. The diversity of characteristics of lithic technology from Lingjing and other contemporary sites in north China show the complexity of the Chinese Early Paleolithic, rather than a simple monotonous stone tool tradition.
... Southern China is currently at the centre of controversial claims for the early appearance of anatomically modern humans in East Asia during the period~139-70 ka (Wu et al., 2006;Liu et al., 2010Liu et al., , 2015Bae et al., 2014;Curnoe et al., 2016;Michel et al., 2016;Cai et al., 2017). Archaeologists working in the region continue to prefer to apply U-series dating of speleothem layers for inferring the age of Pleistocene human remains (Michel et al., 2016). ...
The occurrence of multi-modal ages for inclusions contained within cave sediments is probably far more widespread and problematic than has been appreciated by archaeologists until now. This phenomenon is likely to be a relatively common situation in caves especially in tropical/sub-tropical areas like southern China where karstification and sedimentation would have been rapid within a context of active hydrological regimes over protracted periods during the Pleistocene. The availability of various cost-effective dating techniques applicable to both Pleistocene cave sediments and a range of sedimentary inclusions means that archaeologists are now better placed to understand this phenomenon than ever before. Here we describe the results of Uranium-series dating of a randomly selected sample of deer bones and teeth from Maludong in southern China which demonstrate the existence of disparate multi-modal ages among sedimentary inclusions at the site. These results have implications for previous reconstructions of the palaeoenvironment of the site as well as for interpretations of the possible significance of enigmatic hominin remains from Maludong for understanding the late phases of human evolutionary history in the region. We conclude that the complexities of reconstructing sedimentary history and allied challenges of dating sedimentary inclusions in caves require urgent and serious attention by archaeologists especially in light of the growing international attention being paid to later Middle and Late Pleistocene sites in tropical East Asia.
... This observation is particularly true in arid northwestern China, where there is scant evidence for the development of behaviors typically considered modern until very late in the Paleolithic record (Norton and Jin, 2009;Gao and Norton, 2002;Madsen et al., 2001;Qu et al., 2013). Debates about the relationship between biological and behavioral modernity are compromised in northwest China because the hominin fossil record is incapable of establishing the biological identity of the makers of material culture (Brown, 2001;Dennell, 2009;Wu and Poirier, 1995;Wu and Shenglong, 1985;Wu et al., 2006;Etler, 1996;Brantingham et al., 2004;Kaifu and Fujita, 2012). Yet the region may be key to understanding the nature of hominin dispersal, and perhaps the diffusion of cultural adaptations because of its position along a major east-west travel corridor following the Yellow River and because it sits squarely between suspected northern and southern hominin dispersal routes (Boëda et al., 2013;Ke et al., 2001;Su et al., 1999;Brantingham et al., 2001;Goebel, 2004;Derevianko et al., 2012;Goebel, 2007;Hoffecker, 2005;Lahr and Foley, 1994;Zwyns, 2012). ...
The Paleolithic record of the southwestern Ordos Loop region of northwestern China suggests settlement variability, increased occupational intensity, and the intrusion or development of blade-based technology ca. 41,000–37,000 cal BP. These phenomena are also associated with equivocal evidence for ornamentation. More substantial changes in hominin behavior, however, are evident during and immediately after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), this marked by the development or intrusion of microblade technologies, perhaps groundstone technologies, and reductions in hominin population density. While changes in technology and settlement at approximately 40,000 cal BP arguably equate with some qualitative descriptors of modern human behavior and are contemporaneous with some estimates for the arrival of anatomically modern humans in the region, at present it is unclear whether these changes represent the expression of truly modern human behaviors. In part, this is because the East Asian Paleolithic record is so different from Europe and Africa and because the critical changes leading to the unequivocally modern human behaviors of the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene appeared fairly late, during the LGM. Consequently, we argue that the LGM provided the environment of selection for modern human behaviors in northwestern China, whether their origins were ultimately the result of immigration, diffusion, in situ development, or some combination thereof.
... Our country horseshoe bat family, according to their body size characteristics can be divided into large, medium and small three different types. Large type such as greater horseshoe bat (R. ferrumequinum), Pearson's site (Liu et al., 2014), late Pleistocene of Hubei Huanglongdong late homo sapiens site (Wu et al., 2006), Chongqing Xinglongdong late homo sapiens site (Gao et al., 2003) etc., also found a variety of Chiroptera fossils. But, in our country Neolithic Age and later archaeological work, due to the lack of Chiroptera zooarchaeology professional researchers, so this phase of archaeological work Chiroptera research materials extremely rare. ...
The Suyanggae conference is held by the Korean Prehistory Institute of its President, Dr. and Professor Young-jo LEE. This year of 2017 the symposium was held in Sakhalin, next in Malaysia, before in Haifa, Wyoming, etc.
