Zhiren Cave () is a

karstic Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

cave in the Mulan Mountains that overlooks the Hejiang River in

Chongzuo Chongzuo (; za, Cungzcoj) is a prefecture-level city in the south of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region near the Sino-Vietnamese border. It is home to one of China's largest Zhuang populations. Geography and climate Chongzuo is located in sout ...

Guangxi Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...

, China. Zhiren Cave is an early

Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of ...

site that has yielded the fossil remains of possibly

anatomically modern humans Early modern human (EMH) or anatomically modern human (AMH) are terms used to distinguish ''Homo sapiens'' (the only extant Hominina species) that are anatomically consistent with the range of phenotypes seen in contemporary humans from extin ...

with some mixed

archaic human A number of varieties of ''Homo'' are grouped into the broad category of archaic humans in the period that precedes and is contemporary to the emergence of the earliest early modern humans (''Homo sapiens'') around 300 ka. Omo-Kibish I (Omo I) f ...

features.

Fossils

The fossil remains were discovered by Chinese paleontologists in 2007. The fossils were covered by a continuous layer of

flowstone Flowstones are sheetlike deposits of calcite or other carbonate minerals, formed where water flows down the walls or along the floors of a cave. They are typically found in "solution caves", in limestone, where they are the most common speleothe ...

, a layer that was initially dated to around 113,000 to 100,000 BP. A more thorough re-dating was later undertaken, and gives an estimated date of around 116,000 to 106,000 BP. Some of the large mammal remains discovered at Zhiren Cave include those from ''

Pongo pygmaeus The Bornean orangutan (''Pongo pygmaeus'') is a species of orangutan endemic to the island of Borneo. Together with the Sumatran orangutan (''Pongo abelii'') and Tapanuli orangutan (''Pongo tapanuliensis''), it belongs to the only genus of grea ...

'', ''Elephas kiangnanensis'', ''

Elephas maximus ''Elephas'' is one of two surviving genera in the family of elephants, Elephantidae, with one surviving species, the Asian elephant, ''Elephas maximus''. Several extinct species have been identified as belonging to the genus, extending back to ...

'', '' Megatapirus augustus'', ''Rhinoceros sinensis'', ''Megalovis guangxiensis'', Cervus unicolor, ''

Ursus thibetanus The Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), also known as the Asiatic black bear, moon bear and white-chested bear, is a medium-sized bear species native to Asia that is largely adapted to an arboreal lifestyle. It lives in the Himalayas, sout ...

'', ''

Arctonyx collaris The greater hog badger (''Arctonyx collaris'') is a very large terrestrial mustelid native to Southeast Asia. It is listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species because the global population is thought to be declining due to h ...

'' and ''

Panthera pardus The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus ''Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, an ...

''. Around 25% of the large mammal species discovered at the site are now extinct. Three pieces of hominin remains were identified: two upper molars (''Zhiren 1'' and ''Zhiren 2'') and an anterior

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movabl ...

(''Zhiren 3''). The fossils are believed to have belonged to at least two different individuals, as ''Zhiren 1'' and ''Zhiren 3'' are unlikely to have come from the same individual. When compared to Late Pleistocene fossils from western Eurasia, ''Zhiren 1'' and ''Zhiren 2'' are smaller and would be classified as modern; however, the comparative context is lacking in East Asian Late Pleistocene fossils. Zhiren 2 shows evidence for dental winging in its lower incisors, a feature that has only been found in ''Homo sapiens''. ''Zhiren 3'' contains a mix of archaic and modern human features. The most significant aspect of ''Zhiren 3'' is that it has a distinctively modern human chin. Coupled with the dating, ''Zhiren 3'' could possibly represent the earliest modern human fossil in East Asia. However, many were skeptical of this conclusion, since this would significantly push back the general consensus on the dating of human migration out of Africa.

Peter Bellwood Peter Stafford Bellwood (born Leicester, England, 1943) is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology in the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. He is well known for his Out of Taiwan model rega ...

also cites the lack of archaeological finds (such as

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

stone tools or tooth pendants) associated with the fossils.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * Archaeological sites in China Caves of Guangxi Limestone caves Paleoanthropological sites Chongzuo {{PRChina-archaeology-stub

Fossils

See also

References

Citations

Bibliography