Analysis of 3D measurements of 13 landmarks on 72 Yuanmou Hominoid lower molars and some comparative samples, using Euclidean Distance Matrix Analysis (EDMA), show that the 3D morphometric features of Yuanmou Homi noi...Analysis of 3D measurements of 13 landmarks on 72 Yuanmou Hominoid lower molars and some comparative samples, using Euclidean Distance Matrix Analysis (EDMA), show that the 3D morphometric features of Yuanmou Homi noid lower molars largely resemble those of Lufengpithecus. Compared with extant great apes and humans, both Yuanmou Hominoid and Lufengpithecus differ markedly from humans, whereas they show much resemblance to apes. The two Chinese hominoids and extant great apes are different from humans in many of the same ways. Moreover, 3D morphometric features of Yuanmou Hominoid lower molars differ from those of each of the three extant great apes in similar ways. Of the three, the orangutan is the closest match to Yuanmou Hominoid in tooth morphology. However, the exact implications of these similarities and differences remain to be determined.展开更多
Mesial-distal and buccal-lingual dimensions of 1 266 hominoid teeth found in Yuanmou of Yunnan Province during the period of 1986 and 1988 have been measured. The statistical analyses of the metric data show that the ...Mesial-distal and buccal-lingual dimensions of 1 266 hominoid teeth found in Yuanmou of Yunnan Province during the period of 1986 and 1988 have been measured. The statistical analyses of the metric data show that the tooth sizes of Yuanmou hominoid can be divided into big and small two types, and most tooth dimensions display obvious bimodalities in both histograms and 2 dimensional plots. The coefficients of variance (CV) reveal that the CVs of Yuanmou hominoid tooth sizes are within or close to the CV ranges of Lufengpithecus and extant great apes. The comparisons of tooth sizes and their proportions indicate that Yuanmou hominoids have close affinities with Lefeng and Kaiyuan hominoids, and have obvious differences with Gorilla, Chimpanzee and Orangutan. The authors believe that the hominoid fossils found in Yuanmou in the past 10 years represent a single species with highly sexual dimorphism in morphology and this species may have a close evolutionary relationship with the hominoids found in展开更多
Preliminary study on enamel microstructure of 5 lower permanent incisors of Late Mio-cene Yuanmou hominoids was conducted using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The enamel incremental markings, as well as perikym...Preliminary study on enamel microstructure of 5 lower permanent incisors of Late Mio-cene Yuanmou hominoids was conducted using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The enamel incremental markings, as well as perikymata spacing and its periodicity were observed and counted. Using the perikymata number and periodicity, the crown formation times of the incisors are estimated. The transverse and longitudinal microstructures of the enamel prisms are also ob-served. Comparison of the dental development and enamel microstructure features of Yuanmou hominoids with those of Lufeng hominoids shows that there are similarities and also some differ-ences between them. The relationship between Yuanmou hominoids and early hominids is dis-cussed.展开更多
The two sections containing hominoid fossils in the Yuanmou Basin, Yunnan Prov-ince have been studied by means of magnetostratigraphy. The results are as follows. The Xiaohe section records over 8 polarity zones corre...The two sections containing hominoid fossils in the Yuanmou Basin, Yunnan Prov-ince have been studied by means of magnetostratigraphy. The results are as follows. The Xiaohe section records over 8 polarity zones corresponding to Cande-Kent95 time scale, including C3Br.1n, C3Br.1r, C3Br.2n, C3Br.2r, C4n.1n, C4n.1r, C4n.2n and C4n.2r, attaching to Late Mio-cene. This section comprises two layers of hominoid fossils: the lower layer (the 1st layer in fig. 4) which records the lower portion of C4n.2r with paleomagnetic age of 8.20—8.10 Ma and the upper layer (the 16th layer in fig. 4) which records C3Br.1r with paleomagnetic age of 7.20—7.15 Ma. So the age of hominoid fossils in the Xiaohe section is about 8.20—7.15 Ma. The Leilao section records over 11 polarity zones corresponding to Cande-Kent95 time scale, including C3Br, C3Br.1n, C3Br.1r, C3Br.2n, C3Br.2r, C4n.1n, C4n.1r, C4n.2n, C4n.2r, C4n.3n and C4n.3r, attaching to Late Miocene. This section also consists of two layers of hominoid fossils: the lower layer (the 3rd layer in fig. 3) which records C4n.2r with the age of 8.20—8.10 Ma and the upper layer(the 19th layer in fig. 3) which records the middle portion of C3Br with the age of 7.15—7.1 Ma. So the age of hominoid fossils in the Leilao section is about 8.20—7.10 Ma. Sedimentary environments reflected in both sections are extremely similar, and the ages of hominoid fossils are of correspondency. The age of the lower and upper fossil layers is 8.20—8.10 Ma and 7.20—7.10 Ma respectively, which probably imply that hominoids living in Xiaohe and Leilao basins have uniform activity areas. There were hominoids activities all along during 8.00—7.00 MaBP in this field.展开更多
Fossil apes are known from several late Miocene localities in Yunnan Province,southwestern China,principally from Shihuiba(Lufeng)and the Yuanmou Basin,and represent three species of Lufengpithecus.They mostly compris...Fossil apes are known from several late Miocene localities in Yunnan Province,southwestern China,principally from Shihuiba(Lufeng)and the Yuanmou Basin,and represent three species of Lufengpithecus.They mostly comprise large samples of isolated teeth,but there are also several partial or complete adult crania from Shihuiba and a single juvenile cranium from Yuanmou.Here we describe a new,relatively complete and largely undistorted juvenile cranium from the terminal Miocene locality of Shuitangba,also in Yunnan.It is only the second ape juvenile cranium recovered from the Miocene of Eurasia and it is provisionally assigned to the species present at Shihuiba,Lufengpithecus lufengensis.Lufengpithecus has most often been linked to the extant orangutan,Pongo pygmaeus,but recent studies of the crania from Shihuiba and Yuanmou have demonstrated that this is unlikely.The new cranium reinforces the view that Lufengpithecus represents a distinct,late surviving lineage of large apes in the late Miocene of East Asia that does not appear to be closely affiliated with any extant ape lineage.It substantially increases knowledge of cranial morphology in Lufengpithecus and demonstrates that species of this genus represent a morphologically diverse radiation of apes,which is consistent with the dynamic tectonic and biotic milieu of southwestern China in the late Miocene.展开更多
Fossil records indicate orangutan-like hominoids have been widely distributed in south China during Pleistocene, although currently only surviving in the tropical forests of Kalimantan and Sumatra in Indonesia. This p...Fossil records indicate orangutan-like hominoids have been widely distributed in south China during Pleistocene, although currently only surviving in the tropical forests of Kalimantan and Sumatra in Indonesia. This paper describes the recently discovered hominoid fossil teeth from human site of Mulanshan cave in Chongzuo of Guangxi, whose geological age is the Late Pleistocene, about 11000 yeas age based on associated mammal fauna and U-series dating. Compared with those of modern and subfossil orangutans from Indonesia, other fossil great apes from China, the hominoid teeth from Mulanshan cave are orangutan-like, but show somehow different from Indonesia's orangutans, the average sizes of cheek teeth larger and occlusal enamel wrinkles less and simpler. They are classified temporarily as the subspecies of Pongo pygmaeus weidenreichi. Concerning the variations of morphological features and dental sizes of orangutan-like teeth from southern China and neighboring northern Vietnam, different subspecies or species or genus possibly, but the key evidence is necessary to be identified.展开更多
It has been proposed that paleoclimatic changes and tectonic events strongly affect hominoid evolution. The Zhupeng section at Yuanmou Basin, southwestern China, with the hominoid-bearing fluvial-lacustrine sediments,...It has been proposed that paleoclimatic changes and tectonic events strongly affect hominoid evolution. The Zhupeng section at Yuanmou Basin, southwestern China, with the hominoid-bearing fluvial-lacustrine sediments, is an ideal natural laboratory to test this hypothesis. This study provided an integrated magnetic study, including low-fre- quency susceptibility, the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibil-ity, temperature-dependent susceptibility, hysteresis loops, isothermal remanent magnetization, and anhysteretic rema-nent magnetization, on samples from the Baozidongqing section at Zhupeng. Results show that the dominant mag-netic carrier is hematite, with minor amount of magnetite. Both the composition and concentration of magnetic miner-als strongly correlate with the lithostratigraphy. At least eight short-term events defined by higher concentrations of magnetite were identified. These short events reflect that the subtropical dry-hot climate is similar to today’s climate. Basing on the lithostratigraphic and rock magnetic results, we suggest that Yuanmou Basin was in a steady deposition environment from about 11 to 7 Ma, which is characterized by alternating of long-term torrid-humid climate and short-term dry-hot climate. Our study provides invaluable environment information for understanding the climate shift and the relationship between paleoenvironment and homi-noid evolution in southwestern China during late Miocene.展开更多
文摘Analysis of 3D measurements of 13 landmarks on 72 Yuanmou Hominoid lower molars and some comparative samples, using Euclidean Distance Matrix Analysis (EDMA), show that the 3D morphometric features of Yuanmou Homi noid lower molars largely resemble those of Lufengpithecus. Compared with extant great apes and humans, both Yuanmou Hominoid and Lufengpithecus differ markedly from humans, whereas they show much resemblance to apes. The two Chinese hominoids and extant great apes are different from humans in many of the same ways. Moreover, 3D morphometric features of Yuanmou Hominoid lower molars differ from those of each of the three extant great apes in similar ways. Of the three, the orangutan is the closest match to Yuanmou Hominoid in tooth morphology. However, the exact implications of these similarities and differences remain to be determined.
文摘Mesial-distal and buccal-lingual dimensions of 1 266 hominoid teeth found in Yuanmou of Yunnan Province during the period of 1986 and 1988 have been measured. The statistical analyses of the metric data show that the tooth sizes of Yuanmou hominoid can be divided into big and small two types, and most tooth dimensions display obvious bimodalities in both histograms and 2 dimensional plots. The coefficients of variance (CV) reveal that the CVs of Yuanmou hominoid tooth sizes are within or close to the CV ranges of Lufengpithecus and extant great apes. The comparisons of tooth sizes and their proportions indicate that Yuanmou hominoids have close affinities with Lefeng and Kaiyuan hominoids, and have obvious differences with Gorilla, Chimpanzee and Orangutan. The authors believe that the hominoid fossils found in Yuanmou in the past 10 years represent a single species with highly sexual dimorphism in morphology and this species may have a close evolutionary relationship with the hominoids found in
基金the National Key Research Project of China(Grant No.95-01)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.40002003) the Chinese Academy of Sciences(Grant No.970402).
文摘Preliminary study on enamel microstructure of 5 lower permanent incisors of Late Mio-cene Yuanmou hominoids was conducted using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The enamel incremental markings, as well as perikymata spacing and its periodicity were observed and counted. Using the perikymata number and periodicity, the crown formation times of the incisors are estimated. The transverse and longitudinal microstructures of the enamel prisms are also ob-served. Comparison of the dental development and enamel microstructure features of Yuanmou hominoids with those of Lufeng hominoids shows that there are similarities and also some differ-ences between them. The relationship between Yuanmou hominoids and early hominids is dis-cussed.
文摘The two sections containing hominoid fossils in the Yuanmou Basin, Yunnan Prov-ince have been studied by means of magnetostratigraphy. The results are as follows. The Xiaohe section records over 8 polarity zones corresponding to Cande-Kent95 time scale, including C3Br.1n, C3Br.1r, C3Br.2n, C3Br.2r, C4n.1n, C4n.1r, C4n.2n and C4n.2r, attaching to Late Mio-cene. This section comprises two layers of hominoid fossils: the lower layer (the 1st layer in fig. 4) which records the lower portion of C4n.2r with paleomagnetic age of 8.20—8.10 Ma and the upper layer (the 16th layer in fig. 4) which records C3Br.1r with paleomagnetic age of 7.20—7.15 Ma. So the age of hominoid fossils in the Xiaohe section is about 8.20—7.15 Ma. The Leilao section records over 11 polarity zones corresponding to Cande-Kent95 time scale, including C3Br, C3Br.1n, C3Br.1r, C3Br.2n, C3Br.2r, C4n.1n, C4n.1r, C4n.2n, C4n.2r, C4n.3n and C4n.3r, attaching to Late Miocene. This section also consists of two layers of hominoid fossils: the lower layer (the 3rd layer in fig. 3) which records C4n.2r with the age of 8.20—8.10 Ma and the upper layer(the 19th layer in fig. 3) which records the middle portion of C3Br with the age of 7.15—7.1 Ma. So the age of hominoid fossils in the Leilao section is about 8.20—7.10 Ma. Sedimentary environments reflected in both sections are extremely similar, and the ages of hominoid fossils are of correspondency. The age of the lower and upper fossil layers is 8.20—8.10 Ma and 7.20—7.10 Ma respectively, which probably imply that hominoids living in Xiaohe and Leilao basins have uniform activity areas. There were hominoids activities all along during 8.00—7.00 MaBP in this field.
基金supported by the National Science Foundation(BCS 1035897,BCS 1227838 and BCS 0321893)Bryn Mawr College,the American Association of Physical Anthropologists the Yunnan Natural Science Foundation(2010CC010)the Zhaotong Government,the National Basic Research Program of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China(2012CB821900 and 40925012)
文摘Fossil apes are known from several late Miocene localities in Yunnan Province,southwestern China,principally from Shihuiba(Lufeng)and the Yuanmou Basin,and represent three species of Lufengpithecus.They mostly comprise large samples of isolated teeth,but there are also several partial or complete adult crania from Shihuiba and a single juvenile cranium from Yuanmou.Here we describe a new,relatively complete and largely undistorted juvenile cranium from the terminal Miocene locality of Shuitangba,also in Yunnan.It is only the second ape juvenile cranium recovered from the Miocene of Eurasia and it is provisionally assigned to the species present at Shihuiba,Lufengpithecus lufengensis.Lufengpithecus has most often been linked to the extant orangutan,Pongo pygmaeus,but recent studies of the crania from Shihuiba and Yuanmou have demonstrated that this is unlikely.The new cranium reinforces the view that Lufengpithecus represents a distinct,late surviving lineage of large apes in the late Miocene of East Asia that does not appear to be closely affiliated with any extant ape lineage.It substantially increases knowledge of cranial morphology in Lufengpithecus and demonstrates that species of this genus represent a morphologically diverse radiation of apes,which is consistent with the dynamic tectonic and biotic milieu of southwestern China in the late Miocene.
基金Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant Nos. 2006CB806400 and 2007FY110200)Key Knowledge Innovation Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No.KZCX2-YW-106)
文摘Fossil records indicate orangutan-like hominoids have been widely distributed in south China during Pleistocene, although currently only surviving in the tropical forests of Kalimantan and Sumatra in Indonesia. This paper describes the recently discovered hominoid fossil teeth from human site of Mulanshan cave in Chongzuo of Guangxi, whose geological age is the Late Pleistocene, about 11000 yeas age based on associated mammal fauna and U-series dating. Compared with those of modern and subfossil orangutans from Indonesia, other fossil great apes from China, the hominoid teeth from Mulanshan cave are orangutan-like, but show somehow different from Indonesia's orangutans, the average sizes of cheek teeth larger and occlusal enamel wrinkles less and simpler. They are classified temporarily as the subspecies of Pongo pygmaeus weidenreichi. Concerning the variations of morphological features and dental sizes of orangutan-like teeth from southern China and neighboring northern Vietnam, different subspecies or species or genus possibly, but the key evidence is necessary to be identified.
基金We thank Prof.Gao Feng for advice on the field work.This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.40221402).
文摘It has been proposed that paleoclimatic changes and tectonic events strongly affect hominoid evolution. The Zhupeng section at Yuanmou Basin, southwestern China, with the hominoid-bearing fluvial-lacustrine sediments, is an ideal natural laboratory to test this hypothesis. This study provided an integrated magnetic study, including low-fre- quency susceptibility, the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibil-ity, temperature-dependent susceptibility, hysteresis loops, isothermal remanent magnetization, and anhysteretic rema-nent magnetization, on samples from the Baozidongqing section at Zhupeng. Results show that the dominant mag-netic carrier is hematite, with minor amount of magnetite. Both the composition and concentration of magnetic miner-als strongly correlate with the lithostratigraphy. At least eight short-term events defined by higher concentrations of magnetite were identified. These short events reflect that the subtropical dry-hot climate is similar to today’s climate. Basing on the lithostratigraphic and rock magnetic results, we suggest that Yuanmou Basin was in a steady deposition environment from about 11 to 7 Ma, which is characterized by alternating of long-term torrid-humid climate and short-term dry-hot climate. Our study provides invaluable environment information for understanding the climate shift and the relationship between paleoenvironment and homi-noid evolution in southwestern China during late Miocene.
