Early Pleistocene hominid teeth recovered in Mohui cave in Bubing Basin, Guangxi,South China

Since the 1950s, researchers who examine the issue of human beginnings often turn to Africa where there is a picture of human origins and evolution based on African hominid fossils with ages that are constantly revised to be older and older. However, there are many other unsolved problems about early human origins and evolution that may be solved by looking outside Africa. Over seventy years ago, Asia was described as a dispersal center of the earliest human industry, and a key arena for huma…

Early Pleistocene hominid teeth recovered in Mohui cave in Bubing Basin, Guangxi, South China

Two hominid teeth recovered in Mohui cave are morphologically distinguished from Australopithecus in Africa, but close to Homo erectus in China. These teeth are therefore provisionally assigned to Homo erectus. The associated mammalian fauna include Gigantopithecus blacki, Nestoritherium sp., Sus xiaozhu, Sus peii and Ailuropoda microta, which are typical early Pleistocene taxa in South China. The general characteristics of the Mohui faunal assemblage are similar to the Longgupo site, which is dated to 2 Ma, implying a contemporaneity for the two sites. To date, compared with the discoveries in Africa, far fewer early Pleistocene hominid fossils have been recovered in Asia, and there are intensive controversies concerning their stratigraphic provenience and typological and temporal positions. The hominid fossils from Mohui cave, with their reliable biostratigraphic positions and distinct typological features, provide important evidence regarding the issue of early human origins and evolution.