Huanglong Cave: A Late Pleistocene human fossil site in Hubei Province,China |
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| Authors: | Wu Liu Xianzhu Wu Shuwen Pei Xiujie Wu Christopher J. Norton |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Kunming, Yunnan, China;2. Palaeontology, Geobiology and Earth Archives Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia;3. Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit, School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences, Gold Coast Campus, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia;4. Mengzi Institute of Cultural Relics, Mengzi, Yunnan, China;5. Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China;6. State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China;7. Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry Facility, Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre, University of New South Wales Australia, Sydney, Australia;8. Faculty of Tourism and Geographic Science, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, China |
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| Abstract: | This contribution discusses recent paleoanthropological findings from Huanglong Cave, a Late Pleistocene human fossil site from Yunxi County, Hubei Province, China. Three excavations in the Huanglong Cave from 2004 to 2006 yielded seven human teeth, some stone and bone tools, possible burnt sediment and other evidence possibly related to hominin activities. Based on the presence of extinct faunas (20% of total taxa identified), the deposits dated to the Late Pleistocene. Electron spin resonance (ESR) and uranium-series (U-series) dating analyses on associated teeth and speleothems have resulted in divergent chronometric ages (ESR: 44–34 ka; U-series: 103–79 ka). Analysis indicates: (1) most of the morphological and metric features of the human teeth from Huanglong Cave fall within the range of variation of modern Chinese, but a few characters may still link them to more archaic hominins; (2) some activity-induced abrasion and other tooth use-marks were identified, including pronounced tooth chipping and interproximal grooves on the anterior teeth; (3) the sample of blackened deposit has a high carbon content (over 70%), experienced high temperatures, and likely was of cultural origin and not natural; (4) the mammal fossils represent the “Ailuropoda-Stegodon” faunal unit which lived in southern China throughout the Pleistocene. Synthesizing all of these findings, especially the human teeth that display modern human characteristics, Huanglong Cave will offer some new insights into various issues currently being debated in Late Pleistocene human evolutionary research. |
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