120-150 ka human tooth and ivory engravings from Xinglongdong Cave, Three Gorges Region, South China

Rich paleoanthropological materials were unearthed in primary context from the Xinglongdong Cave in Fengjie County, Chongqing, South China, including a human tooth, numerous mammalian fossils, some stone artifacts and a Stegodon tusk exhibiting intentional engravings.Based on biostratigraphic data and uranium series dating,the cave was utilized as a human shelter about 120000-150000 years ago. It is the first time that an archaic Homo sapiens fossil has been unearthed from the Three Gorges Region. Engravings on the Stegodon tusk appear in groups,making up simple and abstract images. It is the earliest known engravings created by human beings; it exhibits great potential for the study of the origin of art and the development of ancient cultures in south China and bears important implications for the origin of modern humans in East Asia.     

The brain morphology of Homo Liujiang cranium fossil by three-dimensional computed tomography

The Liujiang cranium is the most complete and well-preserved late Pleistocene human fossils ever unearthed in south China. Because the endocranial cavity is filled with hard stone matrix, earlier studies focused only on the exterior morphology of the specimen using the traditional methods. In order to derive more information for the phyletic evaluation of the Liujiang cranium, high-resolution industrial computed tomography （CT） was used to scan the fossil, and the three-dimensional （3D） brain image was reconstructed. Compared with the endocasts of the hominin fossils （Hexian, Zhoukoudian, KNM-WT 15000, Sm 3, Kabwe, Brunn 3, Predmost） and modern Chinese, most morphological features of the Liujiang brain are in common with modern humans, including a round brain shape, bulged and wide frontal lobes, an enlarged brain height, a full orbital margin and long parietal lobes. A few differences exist between Liujiang and the modern Chinese in our sample, including a strong posterior projection of the occipital lobes, and a reduced cerebellar lobe. The measurement of the virtual endocast shows that the endocranial capacity of Liujiang is 1567 cc, which is in the range of Late Homo sapiens and much beyond the mean of modern humans. The brain morphology of Liujiang is assigned to Late Homo sapiens.     

A preliminary report on the newly found Tianyuan Cave, a Late Pleistocene human fossil site near Zhoukoudian

The Tianyuan Cave is the only human fossil-bearing site containing rich mammalian fossils found in the last decades near Zhoukoudian. Up to now more than 34 specimens of the human body have been recovered, and the mammalian fossils can be put into 29 species. Cervids dominate the fauna, and carnivores are very rare. Based on the primary examination, the human fossils can be attributed to the species Homo sapiens. All the mammalian fossils, except one between tooth of Crocuta belong to the species that still exist today. But some of them are the first records in fossil form north of the Yellow River, such as Arctonyx and Capricornis. Based on the mammalian fauna study, it seems that the Tianyuan Cave can be correlated with the Upper Cave.Sixty-three percent of the species of the mammalian fauna from the Tianyuan Cave are also present in the Upper Cave.The characters of the deposits also share some similarities between the Tianyuan Cave and the Upper Cave; both of them are mainly composed of breccia without cement. The dating using the U-series method on deer tooth samples indicates that the geological age of the new site is around 25 thousand years B.P. This is the first discovery of human sites outside the core area of the Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian,which throws new light onto this world famous site complex.     

Stratigraphic,chronological and behavioural contexts of Pleistocene Homo sapiens from Middle Awash,Ethiopia

Clarifying the geographic, environmental and behavioural contexts in which the emergence of anatomically modern Homo sapiens occurred has proved difficult, particularly because Africa lacked adequate geochronological, palaeontological and archaeological evidence. The discovery of anatomically modern Homo sapiens fossils at Herto, Ethiopia, changes this. Here we report on stratigraphically associated Late Middle Pleistocene artefacts and fossils from fluvial and lake margin sandstones of the Upper Herto Member of the Bouri Formation, Middle Awash, Afar Rift, Ethiopia. The fossils and artefacts are dated between 160,000 and 154,000 years ago by precise age determinations using the 40Ar/39Ar method. The archaeological assemblages contain elements of both Acheulean and Middle Stone Age technocomplexes. Associated faunal remains indicate repeated, systematic butchery of hippopotamus carcasses. Contemporary adult and juvenile Homo sapiens fossil crania manifest bone modifications indicative of deliberate mortuary practices.     

New discoveries from the classic Quaternary mammalian fossil area of Yanjinggou, Chongqing, and their chronological explanations

Yanjinggou in Wanzhou District of Chongqing is one of the earliest reported and most famous Quaternary mammalian fossil areas in China. The fauna from this area used to be taken as a benchmark for the biochronological comparison of Quaternary paleontology of South China, but the chronology of this fauna has many controversies for the lack of exact locational and stratigraphical records. The present article, on the basis of recent investigations and discoveries, discusses and explains the distribution and biochronology of the mammalian faunas in the Yanjinggou area. The newly discovered Dayakou fissure fauna, including Rhizomys troglodytes, Homotherium sp., Panthera pardus, Stegodon orientalis, Dicerorhinus sumatrensis, Hesperotherium sinense, Sus sp., Cervavitus fenqii, Cervus sp. and Muntiacus sp., is correlated to the middle Early Pleistocene. The presence of Early Pleistocene mammalian fauna in the Yanjinggou area is therefore confirmed. The “Wanhsien fauna” or “Yenchingkou (=Yanjinggou) fauna” as a Mid-Late Pleistocene biostratigraphical datum should be abandoned. The Dayakou fauna and the Upper Cave fauna of Pingba, both in the Yanjinggou area, are correlated to the middle Early Pleistocene and the early Middle Pleistocene in age, respectively.     

陕西蓝田锡水洞哺乳动物群的意义

在分析了锡水洞化石哺乳动物群的性质及其所反映的古气候环境后，通过对该时期古人类分布及活动的推断，确定出该动物群的时代为中更新世，进而推算出了第四纪中期以来秦岭大约抬升了１１０ｍ。     

Neanderthal cranial ontogeny and its implications for late hominid diversity

Homo neanderthalensis has a unique combination of craniofacial features that are distinct from fossil and extant 'anatomically modern' Homo sapiens (modern humans). Morphological evidence, direct isotopic dates and fossil mitochondrial DNA from three Neanderthals indicate that the Neanderthals were a separate evolutionary lineage for at least 500,000 yr. However, it is unknown when and how Neanderthal craniofacial autapomorphies (unique, derived characters) emerged during ontogeny. Here we use computerized fossil reconstruction and geometric morphometrics to show that characteristic differences in cranial and mandibular shape between Neanderthals and modern humans arose very early during development, possibly prenatally, and were maintained throughout postnatal ontogeny. Postnatal differences in cranial ontogeny between the two taxa are characterized primarily by heterochronic modifications of a common spatial pattern of development. Evidence for early ontogenetic divergence together with evolutionary stasis of taxon-specific patterns of ontogeny is consistent with separation of Neanderthals and modern humans at the species level.     

Remains of Homo erectus from Bouri, Middle Awash, Ethiopia

The genesis, evolution and fate of Homo erectus have been explored palaeontologically since the taxon's recognition in the late nineteenth century. Current debate is focused on whether early representatives from Kenya and Georgia should be classified as a separate ancestral species ('H. ergaster'), and whether H. erectus was an exclusively Asian species lineage that went extinct. Lack of resolution of these issues has obscured the place of H. erectus in human evolution. A hominid calvaria and postcranial remains recently recovered from the Dakanihylo Member of the Bouri Formation, Middle Awash, Ethiopia, bear directly on these issues. These approximately 1.0-million-year (Myr)-old Pleistocene sediments contain abundant early Acheulean stone tools and a diverse vertebrate fauna that indicates a predominantly savannah environment. Here we report that the 'Daka' calvaria's metric and morphological attributes centre it firmly within H. erectus. Daka's resemblance to Asian counterparts indicates that the early African and Eurasian fossil hominids represent demes of a widespread palaeospecies. Daka's anatomical intermediacy between earlier and later African fossils provides evidence of evolutionary change. Its temporal and geographic position indicates that African H. erectus was the ancestor of Homo sapiens.     

Pleistocene Homo sapiens from Middle Awash,Ethiopia

The origin of anatomically modern Homo sapiens and the fate of Neanderthals have been fundamental questions in human evolutionary studies for over a century. A key barrier to the resolution of these questions has been the lack of substantial and accurately dated African hominid fossils from between 100,000 and 300,000 years ago. Here we describe fossilized hominid crania from Herto, Middle Awash, Ethiopia, that fill this gap and provide crucial evidence on the location, timing and contextual circumstances of the emergence of Homo sapiens. Radioisotopically dated to between 160,000 and 154,000 years ago, these new fossils predate classic Neanderthals and lack their derived features. The Herto hominids are morphologically and chronologically intermediate between archaic African fossils and later anatomically modern Late Pleistocene humans. They therefore represent the probable immediate ancestors of anatomically modern humans. Their anatomy and antiquity constitute strong evidence of modern-human emergence in Africa.     

ESR dating evidence for early modern humans at Border Cave in South Africa

The archaeological and hominid site of Border Cave (KwaZulu, South Africa) has a stratigraphic sequence covering the Middle and Later Stone Ages (MSA and LSA). It has been proposed that four hominid specimens recovered there (BC1 and BC2 of uncertain provenance, and BC3 and BC5 recovered from MSA layers) represent very early examples of anatomically modern humans, supporting an early late-Pleistocene appearance of modern Homo sapiens in Africa. This early appearance, however, has been questioned, largely because of doubts about the stratigraphic positions associated with the specimens and because of the lack of a reliable chronology for the stratigraphic sequence. We now report on the first comprehensive radiometric dating analysis of Border Cave, using electron spin resonance (ESR) on teeth within sediment layers. BC3 is likely to be approximately 70-80 kyr old, and BC5, 50-65 kyr old. BC1 and BC2 are almost certainly less than 90 kyr old. These results, although younger than some age estimates, support the early occurrence of anatomically modern humans at Border Cave. In addition, our results suggest that the Howiesons Poort lithic industry (approximately 45-75 kyr) and the MSA-LSA transition (approximately 35 kyr) are younger than often believed.     

Huanglong Cave, a new late Pleistocene hominid site in Hubei Province, China

For the past two decades, the modern human origins debate has received significant interest from both the scientific community and the public. The two hypothe- ses “Out of Africa” and “Mutiregional evolution” are focuses of this debate[1-3]. In partic…     

Climate indexes of phytoliths from Homo erectus'''' cave deposits in Nanjing

Many related papers have been published since the first report on the discovery of Nanjing hominid crania by Mu et al.[1]. Mu et al.[1], Xu et al.[2—4], the Tangshan Ar-chaeological Team[5] and Dong[6] have successively stud-ied the Nanjing Homo erectus?symbiotic faunas. Mu et al. and Xu et al. considered that the nature of the fauna in the Tangshan area belongs to the Oriental Realm,and this region was usually occupied by Ailuropoda-Tapirus fauna in the Pleistocene. However, the typica…     

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…     

Growth processes in teeth distinguish modern humans from Homo erectus and earlier hominins.

A modern human-like sequence of dental development, as a proxy for the pace of life history, is regarded as one of the diagnostic hallmarks of our own genus Homo. Brain size, age at first reproduction, lifespan and other life-history traits correlate tightly with dental development. Here we report differences in enamel growth that show the earliest fossils attributed to Homo do not resemble modern humans in their development. We used daily incremental markings in enamel to calculate rates of enamel formation in 13 fossil hominins and identified differences in this key determinant of tooth formation time. Neither australopiths nor fossils currently attributed to early Homo shared the slow trajectory of enamel growth typical of modern humans; rather, both resembled modern and fossil African apes. We then reconstructed tooth formation times in australopiths, in the approximately 1.5-Myr-old Homo erectus skeleton from Nariokotome, Kenya, and in another Homo erectus specimen, Sangiran S7-37 from Java. These times were shorter than those in modern humans. It therefore seems likely that truly modern dental development emerged relatively late in human evolution.     

2017年古生物学热点回眸

 2017年国际古生物研究取得了一系列重要进展。本文介绍地球早期生命研究、最古老树木生长模式、生物宏演化、琥珀中的特异保存化石、三维翼龙胚胎、最早的智人等具体成果，希望由此反映国际古生物研究领域的前沿热点及中国古生物学界所做的突出贡献。     

A new small-bodied hominin from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia

Currently, it is widely accepted that only one hominin genus, Homo, was present in Pleistocene Asia, represented by two species, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. Both species are characterized by greater brain size, increased body height and smaller teeth relative to Pliocene Australopithecus in Africa. Here we report the discovery, from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia, of an adult hominin with stature and endocranial volume approximating 1 m and 380 cm3, respectively--equal to the smallest-known australopithecines. The combination of primitive and derived features assigns this hominin to a new species, Homo floresiensis. The most likely explanation for its existence on Flores is long-term isolation, with subsequent endemic dwarfing, of an ancestral H. erectus population. Importantly, H. floresiensis shows that the genus Homo is morphologically more varied and flexible in its adaptive responses than previously thought.     

Myosin gene mutation correlates with anatomical changes in the human lineage

Powerful masticatory muscles are found in most primates, including chimpanzees and gorillas, and were part of a prominent adaptation of Australopithecus and Paranthropus, extinct genera of the family Hominidae. In contrast, masticatory muscles are considerably smaller in both modern and fossil members of Homo. The evolving hominid masticatory apparatus--traceable to a Late Miocene, chimpanzee-like morphology--shifted towards a pattern of gracilization nearly simultaneously with accelerated encephalization in early Homo. Here, we show that the gene encoding the predominant myosin heavy chain (MYH) expressed in these muscles was inactivated by a frameshifting mutation after the lineages leading to humans and chimpanzees diverged. Loss of this protein isoform is associated with marked size reductions in individual muscle fibres and entire masticatory muscles. Using the coding sequence for the myosin rod domains as a molecular clock, we estimate that this mutation appeared approximately 2.4 million years ago, predating the appearance of modern human body size and emigration of Homo from Africa. This represents the first proteomic distinction between humans and chimpanzees that can be correlated with a traceable anatomic imprint in the fossil record.     

A newly discovered Gigantopithecus fauna from Sanhe Cave, Chongzuo, Guangxi, South China

Among the most important faunas in the Late Cenozoic, the Gigantopithecus faunas have received a good deal of attention. The Gigantopithecus fauna recently discovered in Sanhe Cave consists of more than 80 mammal species, including cf. Hominidae, Pongo sp., Hylobates sp., Sinomastodon yangziensis, Stegodon preorientalis, Cervavitus fenqii, Dicoryphochoerus ultimus and Sus xiaozhu. It is the southernmost Gigantopithecus fauna found so far in China. Its geological age is estimated to be Early Pleistocene based on the fauna and stratigraphic correlation. The significant increase in the estimated body sizes of Ailuropoda, Gigantopithecus and Tapirus shows that the Sanhe fauna is middle Early Pleistocene, later than those from Wushan and Liucheng (early Early Pleistocene). Paleomagnetic dating of the fossil-bearing strata in Sanhe Cave gives an age of approximately 1.2 Ma. The fauna is characterized by tropical-subtropical forest types, including Pongo sp., Tupaia sp., Ia sp., Typhlomys intermedius, etc., and it lacks Palaearctic types. It is a typical tropical forest fauna, suggesting an environment with a lush forest and a warm and humid climate. The discovery of the Sanhe Gigantopithecus fauna is significant for establishing the chronological stages of the Gigantopithecus faunas in China, and for discussing their origin, evolution and dynamics. Supported by Key Knowledge Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX2-YW-106) and National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2006CB806400)     

Surprisingly rapid growth in Neanderthals

Life-history traits correlate closely with dental growth, so differences in dental growth within Homo can enable us to determine how somatic development has evolved and to identify developmental shifts that warrant species-level distinctions. Dental growth can be determined from the speed of enamel formation (or extension rate). We analysed the enamel extension rate in Homo antecessor (8 teeth analysed), Homo heidelbergensis (106), Homo neanderthalensis ('Neanderthals'; 146) and Upper Palaeolithic-Mesolithic Homo sapiens (100). Here we report that Upper Palaeolithic-Mesolithic H. sapiens shared an identical dental development pattern with modern humans, but that H. antecessor and H. heidelbergensis had shorter periods of dental growth. Surprisingly, Neanderthals were characterized by having the shortest period of dental growth. Because dental growth is an excellent indicator of somatic development, our results suggest that Neanderthals developed faster even than their immediate ancestor, H. heidelbergensis. Dental growth became longer and brain size increased from the Plio-Pleistocene in hominid evolution. Neanderthals, despite having a large brain, were characterized by a short period of development. This autapomorphy in growth is an evolutionary reversal, and points strongly to a specific distinction between H. sapiens and H. neanderthalensis.     

A newly discovered Gigantopithecus fauna from Sanhe Cave, Chongzuo, Guangxi, South China

Among the most important faunas in the Late Cenozoic, the Gigantopithecus faunas have received a good deal of attention. The Gigantopithecus fauna recently discovered in Sanhe Cave consists of more than 80 mammal species, including cf. Hominidae, Pongo sp., Hylobates sp., Sinomastodon yangzien-sis, Stegodon preorientalis, Cervavitus fenqii, Dicoryphochoerus ultimus and Sus xiaozhu. It is the southernmost Gigantopithecus fauna found so far in China. Its geological age is estimated to be Early Pleistocene bas...