Posted on 01/24/2008 9:39:26 AM PST by charles m
Mainland archaeologists have discovered a fractured but almost complete skull in Xuchang , Henan province , that they believe is from an anatomically modern Homo sapiens nearly 100,000 years old. If the estimate is correct and if the skull, broken into 16 pieces seemingly by a powerful strike, demonstrates a feature of the East Asian population, then one of palaeoanthropology's paradigms - "Out of Africa" - may be shattered.
Part of the Out of Africa theory holds that anatomically modern human beings first appeared in Africa. Then, about 100,000 years ago, they moved off the continent and took over the world, eliminating or replacing their more ape-like ancestors.
The theory has become universally accepted because it is the only one backed up by credible fossil evidence so far. Nonetheless, many mainland palaeoanthropologists find it hard to believe.
They believe that most of the people living in China and East Asia are descendents of a native lineage whose consistent, uninterrupted evolution can be traced back millions of years.
Chinese palaeoanthropologists have unearthed some evidence in the past few decades - some teeth, bones, flint tools and domestic animal remains. But what they found was scant, partial or indirect compared with remains found in Africa - an arid, less populated and largely exposed continent where conditions for fossil preservation and discovery are nearly perfect.
The Achilles' heel of the orient-origin theory is that human fossil records do not exist on the mainland from 50,000 to 100,000 years ago.
For that reason, the theory has been largely ignored by mainstream academics. But the skull discovered in Xuchang may change everything.
The preliminary result of optically stimulated luminescence dating completed by Peking University shows that the age of the skull ranges from 80,000 to 100,000 years.
"It may be what palaeoanthropologists have been looking for, for decades, a modern Homo sapiens species that leads to us," Li Zhanyang , a researcher at the Henan Cultural Heritage Department and leader of the archaeology excavation team, said yesterday.
The skull was discovered last month at a palaeolithic site in Lingjing town, Xuchang, that was a lake.
"Judging from the size, shape and osteal [skull bone] patterns, we immediately realised it is something like a human. Finding a complete skull of an ancient human being is a dream to an archaeologist," Dr Li said.
Though China Daily quoted Shan Jixiang , director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, as describing the skull as "the greatest discovery in China after the Peking Man and Upper Cave Man", palaeoanthropologists said it was too early to make any conclusions.
"It's just been discovered," said Liu Wu , director at the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology. "We guess it could lead to some important evidence. But so far it is mostly a guess."
Saw that earlier. Hey, aren’t you supposed to be takin’ a nap? ;’) Dream of multiregionalism.
The theory takes it on the Chin?
Certainly gives a different slant to it at any rate.
Some chop will sue ye over yon jokes.
If the Chinese have been a separate evolutionary line for ‘millions of years’, wouldn’t that imply that they are a different species, even a different genus, and therefore unable to breed with Europeans? That certainly isn’t the case!
Not necessarily.
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