Archaic human remains from Hualongdong, China, and Middle Pleistocene human continuity and variation
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Publication Date
January 2019
Abstract
Middle to Late Pleistocene human evolution in East Asia has remained controversial regarding the extent of morphological continuity through archaic humans and to modern humans. Newly found ∼300,000-y-old human remains from Hualongdong (HLD), China, including a largely complete skull (HLD 6), share East Asian Middle Pleistocene (MPl) human traits of a low vault with a frontal keel (but no parietal sagittal keel or angular torus), a low and wide nasal aperture, a pronounced supraorbital torus (especially medially), a nonlevel nasal floor, and small or absent third molars. It lacks a malar incisure but has a large superior medial pterygoid tubercle. HLD 6 also exhibits a relatively flat superior face, a more vertical mandibular symphysis, a pronounced mental trigone, and simple occlusal morphology, foreshadowing modern human morphology. The HLD human fossils thus variably resemble other later MPl East Asian remains, but add to the overall variation in the sample. Their configurations, with those of other Middle and early Late Pleistocene East Asian remains, support archaic human regional continuity and provide a background to the subsequent archaic-to-modern human transition in the region.
Document Type
Article
Identifier
SFS0071518_00001
Recommended Citation
Wu, Xiu-Jie; Pei, Shu-Wen; and Cai, Yan-Jun, "Archaic human remains from Hualongdong, China, and Middle Pleistocene human continuity and variation" (2019). KIP Articles. 444.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/kip_articles/444
