The earliest unequivocally modern humans in southern China

Abstract

The hominin record from southern Asia for the early Late Pleistocene epoch is scarce. Well-dated and well-preserved fossils older than ∼45,000 years that can be unequivocally attributed to Homo sapiens are lacking. Here we present evidence from the newly excavated Fuyan Cave in Daoxian (southern China). This site has provided 47 human teeth dated to more than 80,000 years old, and with an inferred maximum age of 120,000 years. The morphological and metric assessment of this sample supports its unequivocal assignment to H. sapiens. The Daoxian sample is more derived than any other anatomically modern humans, resembling middle-to-late Late Pleistocene specimens and even contemporary humans. Our study shows that fully modern morphologies were present in southern China 30,000-70,000 years earlier than in the Levant and Europe. Our data fill a chronological and geographical gap that is relevant for understanding when H. sapiens first appeared in southern Asia. The Daoxian teeth also support the hypothesis that during the same period, southern China was inhabited by more derived populations than central and northern China. This evidence is important for the study of dispersal routes of modern humans. Finally, our results are relevant to exploring the reasons for the relatively late entry of H. sapiens into Europe. Some studies have investigated how the competition with H. sapiens may have caused Neanderthals' extinction (see ref. 8 and references therein). Notably, although fully modern humans were already present in southern China at least as early as ∼80,000 years ago, there is no evidence that they entered Europe before ∼45,000 years ago. This could indicate that H. neanderthalensis was indeed an additional ecological barrier for modern humans, who could only enter Europe when the demise of Neanderthals had already started.

The deep human prehistory of global tropical forests and its relevance for modern conservation

“…There is now clear evidence for the use of tropical forests by our species in Borneo [12][13]34 and Melanesia 35 by c. 45 ka; in South Asia by c. 36 ka 36 ; and in South America by c. 13 ka 37 . There are suggestions of earlier rainforest occupation c. 125 ka in Java [38][39] , c. 60 ka in the Philippines 40 , c. 100 ka in China 41 , and in Africa perhaps from the first appearance of Homo sapiens c. 200 ka 42 , though further research is required to verify these cases 43 . Early modern humans adapted to diverse tropical forest formations, ranging from the sub-zero temperatures of montane forests to dense, humid, evergreen rainforests, undertaking sophisticated forest mammal hunting and plant processing (e.g.…”

How China is rewriting the book on human origins

“…But the fossils are at least 80,000 years old, and perhaps 120,000 years old, Liu and his colleagues reported last year 6 . "Those early migrants may have interbred with archaic populations along the way or in Asia, which could explain Zhirendong people's primitive traits," says Petraglia.…”

Hunter-prey correlation between migration routes of African buffaloes and early hominids: Evidence for the “Out of Africa” hypothesis

“…These people were much more modern-looking than hominins in northern and central China. The discovery adds to the complexity of the human story and shows that much remains to be discovered [24]. Despite these recent confounding paleoanthropological findings of [24] the recent African origin of modern humans, or the "out of Africa" theory (OOA), is the most widely accepted model of the geographic origin and early migration of anatomically modern humans.…”

“…The discovery adds to the complexity of the human story and shows that much remains to be discovered [24]. Despite these recent confounding paleoanthropological findings of [24] the recent African origin of modern humans, or the "out of Africa" theory (OOA), is the most widely accepted model of the geographic origin and early migration of anatomically modern humans. The concept was speculative before it was corroborated in the 1980s by a study of present-day mitochondrial DNA, combined with evidence based on physical anthropology of archaic specimens.…”

“…Recently, [24] -as an evolutionary paradigm-described the archaeological findings of a collection of 47 anatomically modern human teeth from the Fuyan Cave in Daoxian, southern China was performed. Results can be interpreted that anatomically modern humans (AMH) were in the region at least 80,000 years ago, and Such early hunter gatherer societies were extremely dependent "by the bounty of the kill" [26], which was accompanied with such evolutionary traits as social interaction, language, tools and weapons development but also on the migration patterns of their preys.…”