Contextualizing Earliest Arrival of Hominins in China: A Faunal Perspective

Yingqi Zhang1*, Kira Westaway2, Renaud Joannes-Boyau3, and Reiko Kono4

The onset of the Pleistocene is a critical time window to look into the earliest arrival of hominins in East Asia, although the hominin status of several fossil hominids dated to this period is still debated, including Homo erectus wushanensis from Longgupo, Wushan (~2.2 Ma) and Meganthropus paleojavanicus from Jianshi, Hubei (2.15-2.42 Ma). Recent surveys in Guangxi and the Three Gorges area of China have resulted in the discovery of two potentially earlier mammalian faunas that demonstrate significant faunal turnovers and provide important clues to reconstruct the environments before these “purported” hominins. The Qingya Cave is located on the Shanyuanian planation surface of the Three Gorges area. The altitude of its entrance is ca. 1430 m a.s.l., much higher than the altitudes of Longgupo and Jianshi, both of which are ca. 800 m a.s.l. Current evidence suggests that the Shanyuanian planation surface was formed during the Pliocene to the beginning of the Early Pleistocene, which may also indicate the age of the deposits yielding the Qingya Cave fauna. Several elements in the fauna support its earliest Pleistocene age, including the Neogene relict forms such as Hesperotherium, Pachycrocuta, and a primitive Stegodon sp. The Yishi Cave is located on the outskirts of Chongzuo, along the Zuojiang River. The fauna from this cave exhibits a remarkable synchronous appearance of several species that distinguishes it from all known Pleistocene mammalian faunas from southern China, namely Dorcabune liuchengensis, Nesolagus, a brachydont Hystrix, a primitive Stegodon sp., and Arctonyx minor. This combination indicates its possible Late Pliocene age.