Zhirendong

Zhirendong ( Homo sapiens cave) is a site of hominine fossils in the Mulanshan (Mulan Mountains) near Chongzuo ( People's Republic of China ; geodata: 22 ° 17 ′ 13.6 ″  N , 107 ° 30 ′ 45.1 ″  E Coordinates: 22 ° 17 ′ 13.6 ″  N , 107 ° 30 ′ 45.1 ″  E ). The cave is 179 meters above sea level and 34 meters above the Hejiang River in a cone-shaped karst hill made of Triassic limestone that slopes steeply to the river level ; in the Young Pleistocene the height difference to the river plain was much smaller.

The cave, which is only a few meters wide and wound in a double S-shape, extends about 25 meters deep into the rock and at the end has a narrow chamber pointing 90 degrees to the left. The rear area was filled in with blown sediment during the Pleistocene , which was later lost again through geological processes. When a body of water was flooded in, fossil-bearing sediments were deposited, which have been preserved in the rearmost cave area to the present day.

Based on radiometric dating, an age of 100,000 to 113,000 years was calculated for the fossil-bearing strata . Two teeth recovered here (Zhiren 1 and 2) as well as a toothless lower jaw (Zhiren 3; the areas of the front teeth and three molars are preserved ) were discovered by their Chinese discoverers as originating from the archaic Homo sapiens and as a support for the hypothesis they represent from the multiregional Interpreted the origin of modern man . Other researchers interpret the features of the lower jaw to mean that they most closely resemble the Peking people , that is, belonging to Homo erectus .

If the phylogenetic classification (as Homo sapiens instead of Homo erectus ) and the dating are correct, it would be the oldest finds of Homo sapiens in the region. However, this assignment contradicts genetic findings on the spread of humans around 60,000 years ago and is therefore also controversial for this reason. However, it is possible that there is no contradiction at all between the genetic findings and the interpretation of the fossils as belonging to the early Homo sapiens : Experts also discuss the possibility that there was an earlier spread before the spread of humans from Africa - which can still be proven today on the basis of genetic findings There could have been a wave of propagation whose traces have only been preserved in the form of fossils.

literature

• Wu Liu, Erik Trinkaus et al .: Human remains from Zhirendong, South China, and modern human emergence in East Asia. In: PNAS . Volume 107, No. 45, 2010, pp. 19201–19206, doi : 10.1073 / pnas.1014386107 full text (PDF)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ian Tattersall : Masters of the Planet. The Search for Our Human Origins. Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2012, p. 196, ISBN 978-0-230-10875-2
2. ↑ Robin Dennell : Palaeoanthropology: Early Homo sapiens in China. In: Nature . Volume 468, 2010, pp. 512-513, doi: 10.1038 / 468512a
3. ↑ James F. O'Connell, Jim Allen, Martin AJ Williams et al .: When did Homo sapiens first reach Southeast Asia and Sahul? In: PNAS . Online advance publication of August 6, 2018, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.1808385115 .
4. ↑ Hugo Reyes-Centeno et al .: Genomic and cranial phenotype data support multiple modern human dispersals from Africa and a southern route into Asia. In: PNAS . Volume 111, No. 20, 2014, pp. 7248-7253, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.1323666111
5. ↑ Catherine Brahic: Humanity's forgotten pioneers. In: New Scientist . Volume 223, No. 2981, 2014, p. 10, doi: 10.1016 / S0262-4079 (14) 61516-5