Fuyan Cave () is a complex of limestone caves in Tangbei village, Lefutang town,

Daoxian Dao County () is a county in Hunan Province, China, it is under the administration of Yongzhou prefecture-level City. Located on the southern margin of the province, it is adjacent to the northeastern border of Guangxi. The county borders to the ...

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...

province, south central China famous for the discovery of the oldest evidence for unambiguously fully modern humans outside Africa. 47 human teeth, dating to between 80,000 and 120,000 years ago, were discovered at Fuyan Cave. The teeth are also unusual for showing signs of

cavities Cavity may refer to: Biology and healthcare *Body cavity, a fluid-filled space in many animals where organs typically develop **Gastrovascular cavity, the primary organ of digestion and circulation in cnidarians and flatworms *Dental cavity or too ...

, a feature typically not found in teeth older than 50,000 years. However, a later study focusing on autosomal DNA analysis of the remains challenged this assertion, and found that the remains were younger than previously suspected.

Geology

Fuyan consists of three caves connected by tunnels. The cave system has a volume of and ranges over .

Discovery

Fuyan Cave was discovered in 1984. The cave is located at latitude 25°39′02.7″N, longitude 111°28′49.2″E, at 232 m above sea level. The cave was excavated in 2011 over an area of . The 2011 excavation revealed 5 hominin teeth and fossil remains from 39 different mammalians species, including some extinct ones. The cave was excavated in 2011 and in 2013. The teeth were all discovered in the middle cave.

Dating

The teeth were dated by dating nearby

stalagmites A stalagmite (, ; from the Greek , from , "dropping, trickling") is a type of rock formation that rises from the floor of a cave due to the accumulation of material deposited on the floor from ceiling drippings. Stalagmites are typically ...

. The stalagmites were dated to at least 80,000 years. Since the teeth were found under rock over which the stalagmites had grown, the teeth must be older than 80,000 years old. More recent ancient DNA analysis of these remains indicated that the remains dated instead to the

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...

, although these recent findings are still under review. Specimen number FY-HT2 (9380±90 BP) in new study was incorrect identified as human teeth.''María Martinón-Torres'' et al
On the misidentification and unreliable context of the new “human teeth” from Fuyan Cave (China)
May 24, 2021 Reconstructions of “deer-like” wear bear no resemblance to the pres-ervational reality of the tooth FY-HT-2.''Darren Curnoe'' et al
Reply to Martinón-Torres et al. and Higham and Douka: Refusal to acknowledge dating complexities of Fuyan Cave strengthens our case
June 1, 2021

Implications

The discovery is important for many reasons. Previous to this discovery, the earliest evidence for fully modern humans outside the Arabian Peninsula (

Tianyuan Cave Tianyuan Cave () is near Beijing, where Tianyuan man, one of the earliest modern humans, was found. The remains in the Tianyuan Cave have ancestral relations "to many present-day Asians and Native Americans". See also * Niah Caves * Fuyan Cave ...

Niah Cave Niah National Park, located within Miri Division, Sarawak, Malaysia, is the site of the Niah Caves limestone cave and archeological site. History Alfred Russel Wallace lived for 8 months at Simunjan District with a mining engineer, Robert Co ...

Mungo Man Mungo may refer to: People * Mungo (name), a list of people with the given name or surname * Mungo people, an ethnic group in Cameroon Places * Mungo, Angola, a town and municipality * Mungo National Park, Australia * Lake Mungo, Australia ...

) dates to around 40,000 to 50,000 years, so the discovery at Fuyan Cave provides evidence showing that humans migrated out of Africa a lot earlier than previously assumed. Secondly, the finds at Fuyan Cave are much closer to modern humans than they are to contemporary finds at

Xujiayao Xujiayao, located in the Nihewan Basin in China, is an early Late Pleistocene paleoanthropological site famous for its archaic hominin fossils. Location Xujiayao is located on the west bank of the Liyi River, a tributary of the Sanggan River. Xuji ...

and

Qafzeh Mount Precipice ( he, הר הקפיצה, "''Har HaKfitsa''"; ar, جبل القفزة, "''Jebel al-Qafzeh''", "Mount of the Leap"), also known as Mount of Precipitation, Mount of the Leap of the Lord and Mount Kedumim is located just outside the ...

. Thirdly, the discovery shows that modern humans arrived in southern China when there was an older, more primitive hominin present in northern China. Lastly, the discovery shows that modern humans were present in Asia at a time when there is no evidence for fully modern humans in Europe (43,000 BC), which is perhaps explained by the presence of

Neanderthals Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an Extinction, extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ag ...

in Europe preventing the entry of the modern humans.

References

{{Navbox prehistoric caves Caves of Hunan Limestone caves Paleoanthropological sites Paleolithic sites in China Dao County