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…     

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.     

审美人类学如何可能——以埃伦·迪萨纳亚克《审美的人》为例

审美人类学的重心是用人类学的方法和视野研究不同民族的“美学”现象 ,它的一个基本的方法论前提是在承认和尊重不同民族审美现象的差异性的基础上来研究人类美学的共同特征或本质。审美人类学以对传统美学研究的反思为出发点 ,是生活世界的美学 ,同时也是一种经验研究 ,它有助于把西方传统的美学研究从形而上学转变为一种确切的知识     

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.     

人类群体环境适应性进化研究进展

大约5～10万年前,现代人走出非洲并迁移至世界各地繁衍生息.在这一历史迁徙过程中,他们面临着各种新环境的生存挑战.随着群体遗传学信息、环境因素和表型资料等的不断累积,越来越多的研究发现环境因素在人类的适应性进化中起着至关重要的作用.本文从自然气候因素、环境中的病原体分布及食物来源等方面对人类的适应性进化进行综述,并对今后的研究进行展望.     

TIMS U-series ages of speleothems from the Tangshan caves, Nanjing

U-series ages of a set of speleothem samples from the two caves near Tangshan Town, Nanjing, determined by thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS), range from older than 500 KaBP to around 20 kaBP. These dated speleothems with unequivocal stratigraphic layers in cave sediments provide basic data to establish a geochronologic sequence for the cave sediments. Together with the buried layers of two hominid craniums, it is argued that the two fossil craniums, probably transported into the cave, deposited in different geological periods. The ages of one flowstone sample and stalagmites mark an upper limit of 500 KaBP for geochronology of No. 1 fossil cranium, and suggest No. 2 fossil cranium deposited within the age range of 500–240 KaBP.     

The Homo sapiens Cave hominin site of Mulan Mountain, Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo, Guangxi with emphasis on its age

One of the most hotly debated and frontal issues in paleoanthropology focuses on the origins of modern humans. Recently, an incomplete hominin mandible with a distinctly weaker mental protuberance than modern human and a great variety of coexisting fossil mammals were unearthed from the Homo sapiens Cave of Mulan Mountain, Chongzuo, Guangxi. The mammalian fauna from the Homo sapiens Cave characterized by the combination of Elephas kiangnanensis, first occurring Elephas maixmus, and Megatapirus augustus, and strikingly different from the Early Pleistocene Gigantopithecus fauna and the Middle Pleistocene Ailuropoda-Stogodon fauna of South China could be regarded as an early representive of the typical Asian elephant fauna. Faunal analysis, biostratigraphic correlation, and, most importantly, U-series dating all consistently support an estimate of ca. 110 ka for the age of the fossil Homo sapiens and coexisting mammalian fauna, that is, the early Late Pleistocene. The fauna is mainly made up of tropical-subtropical elements, but grassland elements have a much greater variety than forest elements, which probably indicates a drier climate at that time. This discovery of early Homo sapiens at the Mulan Mountain will play a significant role in the study of the origin and its environmental background of modern humans.     

北京丰台地区新发现的一件人枕骨化石的研究

本文旨在对1987年“北京丰台地区新发现的一具人枕骨化石”进行初步探讨。我们对枕骨、骨壁、枕外脊、枕脊三角小区,枕脊及枕外粗隆等形态特征进行分析对照和研究,从而推导出这样的结论:该枕骨化石的年代不会少于一万年,它可能处于化石智人向现代人过渡的位置上。     

古人类遗址桐梓岩灰洞的Th-230/U-234年龄

用 Th-230/U-234法测定了岩灰洞钟乳石结层和骨化石样品的年龄。划为第二层的钙板的年龄为21.4万年。先于钙板生成的岩灰洞堆积物的年龄应大于此值,因此应划为更新世中期,桐梓人应属直立人。     

中国现代人起源的年代学新证据

现代人起源是当前古人类学研究的热点，“多地区连续演化”和“非洲起源”两种主要假说已争论多年。近年来新的分子生物学和年代测定技术在这一领域中的应用，使论战愈加激化。本实验室基于铀系测年技术，研究了我国南方多个中、晚更新世人类遗址的年代，结果表明中国也存在约10万年前的现代人遗址。现代人在中国出现的时间很可能不晚于非洲和西亚。上述年代学新证据不支持中国现代人起源于非洲的假说。