Climate-influenced cave deposition and human occupation during the Pleistocene in Zhiren Cave, southwest China

Ge, Junyi; Deng, Chenglong; Yuan, Wang; Shao, Qingfeng; Xiao-hong, Zhou; Xing, Song; Pang, Haijiao; Chen, Jin

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2020.01.018

Cited by 23 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Also relevant here is the human mandible from Zhirendong in Guangzhi Zhuang Automonous Region, previously dated stratigraphically using U-Th analysis on flowstones to ≥100 ka (23) and most recently to ca. 190 to 130 ka (24). In the absence of direct dating, we believe the lessons drawn from our analysis of these five other karst caves in southern China might also apply to Zhirendong, and we await direct dating or aDNA analysis before (23,28,29).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…120 to 70 ka, in accordance with the "early dispersal" theory. This model is based largely upon the dating of isolated human teeth recovered at Huanglong, Luna, and Fuyan caves and a partial mandible from Zhirendong in southern China (20)(21)(22)(23)(24). Yet several researchers have raised questions about Significance Genetic studies show the founders of all living non-African populations expanded from Africa ca.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Ancient DNA and multimethod dating confirm the late arrival of anatomically modern humans in southern China

Sun

Wen

Lu³

et al. 2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The expansion of anatomically modern humans (AMHs) from Africa around 65,000 to 45,000 y ago (ca. 65 to 45 ka) led to the establishment of present-day non-African populations. Some paleoanthropologists have argued that fossil discoveries from Huanglong, Zhiren, Luna, and Fuyan caves in southern China indicate one or more prior dispersals, perhaps as early as ca. 120 ka. We investigated the age of the human remains from three of these localities and two additional early AMH sites (Yangjiapo and Sanyou caves, Hubei) by combining ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis with a multimethod geological dating strategy. Although U–Th dating of capping flowstones suggested they lie within the range ca. 168 to 70 ka, analyses of aDNA and direct AMS 14C dating on human teeth from Fuyan and Yangjiapo caves showed they derive from the Holocene. OSL dating of sediments and AMS 14C analysis of mammal teeth and charcoal also demonstrated major discrepancies from the flowstone ages; the difference between them being an order of magnitude or more at most of these localities. Our work highlights the surprisingly complex depositional history recorded at these subtropical caves which involved one or more episodes of erosion and redeposition or intrusion as recently as the late Holocene. In light of our findings, the first appearance datum for AMHs in southern China should probably lie within the timeframe set by molecular data of ca. 50 to 45 ka.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

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confidence: 99%

Ancient DNA and multimethod dating confirm the late arrival of anatomically modern humans in southern China

Sun

Wen

Lu³

et al. 2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…We combine this with the body of research that has demonstrated a strong correlation between hominin dispersals and climatic instability [45,91–93]. After the mid-Bruhnes event ( ca 420 ka) it is known that both northern and southern China experienced more intense glacial–interglacial amplitudes with shorter intervals of between 23–100 kyr [43,94,95]. Ash & Gallup [92] studied the correlation between the encephalization quotients of 109 Homo crania and two climate proxies—sea surface temperature and oxygen isotope data ( δ 18 O)—and found the strongest statistically significant correlations to be between cranial capacity and climatic data averaged over 100 kyr intervals (versus 200 kyr).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hominin evolution and diversity: a comparison of earlier-Middle and later-Middle Pleistocene hominin fossil variation in China

Liu

Athreya

Xing

et al. 2022

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Historical views of Asia as an evolutionary ‘backwater’ are associated with the idea that Homo erectus experienced long periods of stasis and ultimately went extinct. However, recent discoveries of well-dated Middle Pleistocene hominin fossils in China have considerably challenged these ideas and provide sufficient data to propose a testable model that explains the patterning of variation in Middle Pleistocene China, and why it changed over time. A series of hominin fossil studies comparing earlier-Middle and later-Middle Pleistocene groups confirm that the expressions of certain traits shift around 300 ka. Fossils from the later Middle Pleistocene are more variable with a mix of archaic traits as well as ones that are common in Western Eurasian early Homo sapiens and Neanderthals. The period around 300 ka appears to have been a critical turning point for later-Middle Pleistocene morphological changes in China. It coincides with a phase of climatic instability in the Northern Hemisphere between Marine Isotope Stages 12 and 10 that would have led to changes in gene flow patterning, and regional population survival/extinction. This localized and testable model can be used for future explorations of hominin evolution in later Pleistocene eastern Eurasia. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The impact of Chinese palaeontology on evolutionary research’.

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“…Zhiren 3 anterior mandible, S. China (Liu et al 2010) has an almost inverted-T-shaped chin and may correspond to MIS 5e based on the new ages as 116-106 ka (Cai et al 2017) and minimum 130 ka (Ge et al 2020).…”

Section: Protruding Chin and Extreme Warmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Homo sapiens' birth and ProgRetrogProg evolution by DNA's extreme climate-induced rearrangement

ÇAKIR¹

2023

Preprint

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The birth time of Homo sapiens is still controversial between 2 million and 100 thousand years ago. A new paradigm can resolve the deadlock: The glacial maximum ~140 ka wiped out Pre-Sapiens almost completely but a small population macroevolutionary progressed into Sapiens in the Levant ~140 ka, and REAL early moderns, REAL early Neanderthals, and REAL early Denisovans originated from this new population. In other words, the common ancestral population was NOT in Africa before 500 ka. The evidence presented here for the parallelism between paleoclimatic coolings and anatomical retrogressions, and vice versa, suggests that retro-progressive evolution was DNA-driven. It means that DNA has retrogressive and progressive forces and also a nonstop dominance struggle between the two. Seemingly, extreme coolings and warmings were a triggering factor for rearrangement of DNA. At those times, the DNA sometimes produced both anatomical and behavioral progression (such as the birth of Sapiens and a synchronous shift from Tabun D-type Mousterian to Tabun C-type), sometimes anatomical retrogression but behavioral progression (for example, despite anatomical retrogression, the reappearance of Neanderthal burials in MIS 4), and also sometimes both anatomical and behavioral retrogression (such as the births of Floresiensis and Luzonensis). This DNA-driven process can also explain the extinctions of Neanderthals, Denisovans, and the hobbits: an increasing progressive dominance (a decreasing retrogressive dominance) in their DNA. If this was the case, the enigma that why Sapiens is the only living species of the genus Homo is enlightened too.

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Climate-influenced cave deposition and human occupation during the Pleistocene in Zhiren Cave, southwest China

Cited by 23 publications

References 64 publications

Ancient DNA and multimethod dating confirm the late arrival of anatomically modern humans in southern China

Ancient DNA and multimethod dating confirm the late arrival of anatomically modern humans in southern China

Hominin evolution and diversity: a comparison of earlier-Middle and later-Middle Pleistocene hominin fossil variation in China

Homo sapiens' birth and ProgRetrogProg evolution by DNA's extreme climate-induced rearrangement

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