New Middle Pleistocene hominid crania from Yunxian in China.

Two fossil human crania have been found in Middle Pleistocene terrace deposits of the Han River in Yun county (Yunxian), Hubei province, China (Figs 1 and 2). These damaged but relatively complete adult specimens show a mixture of features associated both with Homo erectus and with 'archaic H. sapiens'. The Yunxian crania (Figs 3 and 4), although crushed and distorted to varying degrees, are unusual in having major elements of the basicranium, palate, face and cranial vault preserved together. The specimens reveal many details of facial and basicranial anatomy rarely seen in hominid crania of comparable antiquity. Moreover, they are the most complete crania of such great age discovered on the Asian mainland. They consequently throw new light on Middle Pleistocene hominid diversity and the relationships among regionally disparate Middle Pleistocene hominids.     

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.     

Early human use of marine resources and pigment in South Africa during the Middle Pleistocene

Genetic and anatomical evidence suggests that Homo sapiens arose in Africa between 200 and 100 thousand years (kyr) ago, and recent evidence indicates symbolic behaviour may have appeared approximately 135-75 kyr ago. From 195-130 kyr ago, the world was in a fluctuating but predominantly glacial stage (marine isotope stage MIS6); much of Africa was cooler and drier, and dated archaeological sites are rare. Here we show that by approximately 164 kyr ago (+/-12 kyr) at Pinnacle Point (on the south coast of South Africa) humans expanded their diet to include marine resources, perhaps as a response to these harsh environmental conditions. The earliest previous evidence for human use of marine resources and coastal habitats was dated to approximately 125 kyr ago. Coincident with this diet and habitat expansion is an early use and modification of pigment, probably for symbolic behaviour, as well as the production of bladelet stone tool technology, previously dated to post-70 kyr ago. Shellfish may have been crucial to the survival of these early humans as they expanded their home ranges to include coastlines and followed the shifting position of the coast when sea level fluctuated over the length of MIS6.     

Late Pleistocene human skull from Jingchuan,Gansu Province

Jingchuan human fossil, found in Gansu Province in 1976, was given a preliminary report in 1984, but questions remained con- cerning the age and character of the fossil. We conducted field investigation at Jingchuan in May of 2006 to examine the stratum yielding the human fossil and to obtain sediment samples for optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating. Three samples collected from different stratigraphic levels at the fossil locality yielded OSL dates of 15, 48 and 7.9 thousand years ago (ka), respe...     

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.     

Upper Pleistocene human scapula from Salawusu, Inner Mongolia, China

The fossil tooth found in Salawusu Valley, Inner Mongolia is the first Paleolithic human fossil found in China and even in East Asia[1, 2]. The Paleolithic arti- facts recognized in Salawusu as well as those in Shui- donggou represent the earliest Paleoli…     

A Middle Palaeolithic human hyoid bone

The origin of human language, and in particular the question of whether or not Neanderthal man was capable of language/speech, is of major interest to anthropologists but remains an area of great controversy. Despite palaeoneurological evidence to the contrary, many researchers hold to the view that Neanderthals were incapable of language/speech, basing their arguments largely on studies of laryngeal/basicranial morphology. Studies, however, have been hampered by the absence of unambiguous fossil evidence. We now report the discovery of a well-preserved human hyoid bone from Middle Palaeolithic layers of Kebara Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel, dating from about 60,000 years BP. The bone is almost identical in size and shape to the hyoid of present-day populations, suggesting that there has been little or no change in the visceral skeleton (including the hyoid, middle ear ossicles, and inferentially the larynx) during the past 60,000 years of human evolution. We conclude that the morphological basis for human speech capability appears to have been fully developed during the Middle Palaeolithic.     

Carbonate dissolution and deep-water paleoceanography of the South China Sea since the Middle Pleistocene

Based on the data of oxygen isotope, micropaleontology and paleomagnetism, we set up the detailed chronology of Core 17957-2 from the southern South China Sea and discuss the change of carbonate dissolution over the last 800 ka. Down-core variation of carbonate content records the “Pacific-type” cycle of higher glacial values and lower interglacial values, though the core lies above the modern lysocline. Carbonate dissolution indices indicate that several severe dissolution of CaCO₃happened during the transition from interglacial to glacial stages. Spectral analyses of these indices show that the carbonate dissolution periodicities are mainly made up of 500 ka and 100 ka. Compared with the cycles of carbonate dissolution of the Indian Ocean, the long-term (500-ka) periodicity reflects the characteristic of the deep-water circulation of the oceans.     

A complete insect from the Late Devonian period

After terrestrialization, the diversification of arthropods and vertebrates is thought to have occurred in two distinct phases, the first between the Silurian and the Frasnian stages (Late Devonian period) (425-385?million years (Myr) ago), and the second characterized by the emergence of numerous new major taxa, during the Late Carboniferous period (after 345?Myr ago). These two diversification periods bracket the depauperate vertebrate Romer's gap (360-345?Myr ago) and arthropod gap (385-325?Myr ago), which could be due to preservational artefact. Although a recent molecular dating has given an age of 390?Myr for the Holometabola, the record of hexapods during the Early-Middle Devonian (411.5-391?Myr ago, Pragian to Givetian stages) is exceptionally sparse and based on fragmentary remains, which hinders the timing of this diversification. Indeed, although Devonian Archaeognatha are problematic, the Pragian of Scotland has given some Collembola and the incomplete insect Rhyniognatha, with its diagnostic dicondylic, metapterygotan mandibles. The oldest, definitively winged insects are from the Serpukhovian stage (latest Early Carboniferous period). Here we report the first complete Late Devonian insect, which was probably a terrestrial species. Its 'orthopteroid' mandibles are of an omnivorous type, clearly not modified for a solely carnivorous diet. This discovery narrows the 45-Myr gap in the fossil record of Hexapoda, and demonstrates further a first Devonian phase of diversification for the Hexapoda, as in vertebrates, and suggests that the Pterygota diversified before and during Romer's gap.     

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.     

田洋玛珥湖中更新世以来磁化率特征及其环境意义

 对雷州半岛东南部的田洋玛珥湖TYC孔前40 m岩芯进行了研究,结果表明,磁化率与孢粉有很好的对应关系,因而磁化率值的高低变化能够作为该区气候环境变化的替代指标。沉积物磁化率与气候变化的关系为：磁化率的低值与气候暖湿对应;磁化率的高值则与气候寒冷或温凉相对应。中更新世以来,田洋玛珥湖气候环境演化经历了9个不同的阶段：346~301.4 kaBP,气候相对暖湿。301.4~248.8 kaBP,气候寒冷干燥。248.8~188.8 kaBP,气候相对暖湿。188.8~125.2 kaBP,气候寒冷干燥。125.2~69.3 kaBP,气候较为暖湿。69.3~40.43 kaBP,气候偏凉。40.43~25.5 kaBP,气候偏凉但较上阶段温度低,此时玛珥湖呈现出沼泽化过渡阶段。25.5~10.8 kaBP,气候寒冷干燥,玛珥湖干枯成为干玛珥湖。10.8 kaBP以来,由于后期人类活动对玛珥湖的改造,致使磁化率值不断升高。     

Pleistocene dates for the human occupation of New Ireland, northern Melanesia

Pleistocene dates from three cave sites indicate the human capacity to colonise across two oceanic straits to the east of a former Tasmania-Australia-New Guinea continent by 33 kyr BP. The sites demonstrate exploitation of costal marine and lowland tropical forest resources. They extend Pleistocene occupation into island Melanesia and demonstrate that the large islands of northern Melanesia have an antiquity of human occupation of the same order as the adjacent Greater Australian continent.     

临河凹陷QK3钻孔220 ka以来的沉积环境演变记录

临河凹陷是河套盆地的一部分,黄河由西向东流经,其内发育了巨厚的沉积地层,是第四纪环境演变的理想场所。通过分析临河凹陷中QK3钻孔地层的粒度特征,结合年代地层重建了研究区中更新世晚期以来的沉积环境演变过程:189.9 ka.BP～220.26 ka.BP表现为滨湖相沉积;117.47 ka.BP～189.9 ka.BP表现为河流边滩沉积;117.47 ka.BP～189.9 ka.BP表现为河流边滩沉积;38.5 ka.BP～117.47 ka.BP表现为河流边滩和河漫湖泊的交替沉积环境;13.49 ka.BP～38.5 ka.BP表现为河流边滩相沉积环境;13.49 ka.BP以来表现为河漫湖泊相沉积环境。     

Late Miocene hominids from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia.

Molecular studies suggest that the lineages leading to humans and chimpanzees diverged approximately 6.5-5.5 million years (Myr) ago, in the Late Miocene. Hominid fossils from this interval, however, are fragmentary and of uncertain phylogenetic status, age, or both. Here I report new hominid specimens from the Middle Awash area of Ethiopia that date to 5.2-5.8 Myr and are associated with a wooded palaeoenvironment. These Late Miocene fossils are assigned to the hominid genus Ardipithecus and represent the earliest definitive evidence of the hominid clade. Derived dental characters are shared exclusively with all younger hominids. This indicates that the fossils probably represent a hominid taxon that postdated the divergence of lineages leading to modern chimpanzees and humans. However, the persistence of primitive dental and postcranial characters in these new fossils indicates that Ardipithecus was phylogenetically close to the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans. These new findings raise additional questions about the claimed hominid status of Orrorin tugenensis, recently described from Kenya and dated to approximately 6 Myr.     

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.     

Middle Pleistocene mammalian fauna of Shanyangzhai cave in Qinhuangdao area,China and its zoogeographical significance

The mammalian fauna with clear characteristics of transitional region has been found in the Shanyangzhai cave of the Qin-huangdao area where the three Chinese zoogeographical regions (the Northeast region, the North region and the Mengxin region) join. Abundant fossils mainly are small mammals. The fauna includes typical species derived from three zoogeographical regions and can be compared with the middle Pleistocene faunas found in both the Zhoukoudian (the North region) and the Jinniushan (the Northeast ...