Pianpian Wei

Fudan University · Department of Cultural Heritage and Museology

Emperor Wu (武帝, Wudi) of the Xianbei-led Northern Zhou dynasty, named Yuwen Yong (宇文邕, 543–578 CE), was a highly influential emperor who reformed the system of regional troops, pacified the Turks, and unified the northern part of the country. His genetic profile and physical characteristics, including his appearance and potential diseases, have gar...

Bilaterally symmetrical objects represent a large and important proportion of archaeological artifacts and biological objects. The identification of the plane of symmetry plays a vital role in quantifying surface asymmetry and producing profile drawings in archaeology and anthropology. The correct recognition of symmetry provides evidence to allow...

Objectives This study aims to explore the structural properties along entire humeral diaphyses of Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene East Asian modern humans relative to the contemporaneous Neandertal specimen Regourdou 1 to provide insight into adaptive behaviors within temporal and regional hominin contexts. Materials and methods The humeri of...

Objective The Late Pleistocene partial right femur from Maludong in southwestern China has been attributed characteristics of early Homo , especially from the Early Pleistocene, putatively representing a late surviving archaic population in the region. Assessment of additional traits is warranted given newly described postcrania from the Late Pleis...

Objectives: This study aims to explore the structural properties along entire humeral diaphyses of Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene East Asian modern humans relative to the contemporaneous Neandertal specimen Regourdou 1 to provide insight into adaptive behaviors within temporal and regional hominin contexts. Materials and methods: The humeri of...

Reconstructing the history of elite communication in ancient China benefits from additional archaeological evidence. We combine textual analysis with new human stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data from two Chu burials in the Jingzhou area to reveal significant dietary differences among Chu nobles of the middle Warring States period ( c . 350 BC)...

Diaphyseal cross-sectional geometry (CSG) is an effective indicator of humeral bilateral asymmetry. However, previous studies primarily focused on CSG properties from limited locations to represent the overall bilateral biomechanical performance of humeral diaphysis. In this study, the complete humeral diaphyses of 40 pairs of humeri from three Chi...

Since the cross-sectional geometries of long bone diaphyses preserve evidence of a bone's mechanical loading history, examination of a bones' cross-sectional properties can be used to inform its loading history. Here, we use a novel colormap method to quantitatively visualize the topography of cortical bone, second moment of areas, and polar moment...

Objectives: Aims of the study are to initially describe and comparatively evaluate the morphology of the new Zhaoguo M1 upper limb remains, and contextualize upper limb functional adaptations among those of other worldwide Upper Paleolithic (UP) humans to make inferences about subsistence-related activity patterns in southwestern China at the Plei...

The intertrochanteric line on the proximal human femur has been the focus of paleoanthropological study for several decades, as it is thought to be a defining characteristic of bipedalism. Expression of this trait is highly variable in human fossils. However, the relatively narrow range of modern human groups in which its expression has been docume...

From pack animals to polo: donkeys from the ninth-century Tang tomb of an elite lady in Xi'an, China - Songmei Hu, Yaowu Hu, Junkai Yang, Miaomiao Yang, Pianpian Wei, Yemao Hou, Fiona B. Marshall

Background Regional diversity in the morphology of the H. erectus postcranium is not broadly documented, in part, because of the paucity of Asian sites preserving postcranial fossils. Yet, such an understanding of the initial hominin taxon to spread throughout multiple regions of the world is fundamental to documenting the adaptive responses to sel...

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Objectives: This study presents the first detailed morphological description and comparison of a Middle Pleistocene hominin mandibular fragment (PA 831) and associated teeth from the Hexian site in Eastern China. We aim to investigate where the Hexian mandible fits within the genus Homo variability in the light of an increased and better character...

This paper describes the 108 femoral, patellar, tibial, and fibular elements of a new species of Homo (Homo naledi) discovered in the Dinaledi chamber of the Rising Star cave system in South Africa. Homo naledi possesses a mosaic of primitive, derived, and unique traits functionally indicative of a bipedal hominin adapted for long distance walking...

Rising Star Cave is located in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site near Krugersdorp in South Africa. In November 2013 and March 2014 more than 1500 hominin fossil elements attributed to a new species, Homo naledi, were recovered and catalogued representing at least a dozen individuals. Only 20 out of 206 bones in the human body are not in t...

The Tianyuan 1 skeleton is among the oldest fossil specimens of our species from East Asia. Important in the original assessment of the skeleton as belonging to a modern human was its femoral structure, particularly its well-developed pilasters. Also noteworthy were its large femoral diaphyseal second moments of area, which were interpreted as evid...

Traits of H. naledi and comparative species. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.09560.029

Holotype and paratype specimens and referred materials. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.09560.028

Homo naledi is a previously-unknown species of extinct hominin discovered within the Dinaledi Chamber of the Rising Star cave system, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa. This species is characterized by body mass and stature similar to small-bodied human populations but a small endocranial volume similar to australopiths. Cranial morphology of H. na...

Homo naledi is a previously-unknown species of extinct hominin discovered within the Dinaledi Chamber of the Rising Star cave system, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa. This species is characterized by body mass and stature similar to small-bodied human populations but a small endocranial volume similar to australopiths. Cranial morphology of H. na...

Dental pathologies and enamel defects in East Asian hominins have rarely been reported. Here, we systematically document and describe a suite of enamel defects in the Xujiayao juvenile maxilla, an East Asian hominin from the early Late Pleistocene that may represent an unknown hominin lineage. In addition, we determine the chronology of growth disr...

Paleoanthropologists have been paying more attention to human femoral crosssectional surface areas, shapes and bilateral asymmetry because of the application of this informations to human evolution, population differences, and survival movements. Traditional analyses of femoral cross-sections usually adopt methods of destructive cutting, or laborin...