Zhiren Cave () is a
karstic
Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. There is some eviden ...
cave in the Mulan Mountains that overlooks the Hejiang River in
Chongzuo
Chongzuo (; ) is a prefecture-level city in the south of Guangxi, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region near the Sino-Vietnamese border. It is home to one of China's largest Zhuang people, Zhuang populations.
Geography and climate
Chongzuo is locate ...
,
Guangxi
Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...
, 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 the Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division ...
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'' ( sometimes ''Homo sapiens sapiens'') that are anatomically consistent with the range of phenotypes seen in contemporary humans, from ...
with some mixed
archaic human
''Homo'' () is a genus of great ape (family Hominidae) that emerged from the genus ''Australopithecus'' and encompasses only a single extant species, ''Homo sapiens'' (modern humans), along with a number of extinct species (collectively called ...
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
Pongo may refer to:
Places
* Pongo (geography), canyon or narrow gorge in the Upper Amazon
* Pongo River (disambiguation), several rivers or estuaries in Africa
* Pongo, Kentucky, an unincorporated community
* Pongo, Longleng, village in Long ...
'', ''Elephas kiangnanensis'', ''
Elephas maximus'', ''
Megatapirus augustus'', ''Rhinoceros sinensis'', ''Megalovis guangxiensis'',
Cervus unicolor, ''
Ursus thibetanus'', ''
Arctonyx collaris'' and ''
Panthera pardus''. 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 jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin ''mandibula'', 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lowerand typically more mobilecomponent of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla).
The jawbone i ...
(''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 Early Farming Dispersal H ...
also cites the lack of archaeological finds (such as
Neanderthal
Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...
stone tools or tooth pendants) associated with the fossils.
See also
*
Fuyan Cave
References
Citations
Bibliography
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Archaeological sites in China
Caves of Guangxi
Limestone caves
Paleoanthropological sites
Chongzuo
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