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An Updated Age for the Xujiayao Hominin from the Nihewan Basin, North China: Implications for Middle Pleistocene Human Evolution in East Asia

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An Updated Age for the Xujiayao Hominin from the Nihewan Basin, North China: Implications for Middle Pleistocene Human Evolution in East Asia Journal of Human Evolution 106 (2017) 54e65 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Human Evolution journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhevol An updated age for the Xujiayao hominin from the Nihewan Basin, North China: Implications for Middle Pleistocene human evolution in East Asia * Hong Ao a, b, , Chun-Ru Liu c, Andrew P. Roberts d, Peng Zhang a, Xinwen Xu e a State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710061, China b Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA c State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing 100029, China d Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra 2601, Australia e School of Urban and Environmental Science, Northwest University, Xi'an 710127, China article info abstract Article history: The Xujiayao site in the Nihewan Basin (North China) is one of the most important Paleolithic sites in Received 19 June 2016 East Asia. Twenty Homo fossils, which were previously assigned to an archaic Homo sapiens group, have Accepted 26 January 2017 been excavated along with more than 30,000 lithic artifacts and ~5000 mammalian fossil specimens. Available online 17 March 2017 Dating of the Xujiayao hominin has been pursued since its excavation in the 1970s, but its age has remained controversial because of limitations of the dating techniques that have been applied to Keywords: available materials. Here, we report new ages for the Xujiayao hominin based on combined electron spin Magnestostratigraphy resonance (ESR) dating of quartz in the sediments and high-resolution magnetostratigraphy of the Electron spin resonance dating fl China uvio-lacustrine sequence. The magnetostratigraphy suggests that the upper Matuyama and Brunhes Archaic Homo sapiens polarity chrons are recorded at Xujiayao. The ESR dating results indicate a pooled average age of 260 Neanderthal e370 ka for the Homo-bearing layer, which is consistent with its position within the middle Brunhes Denisovan normal polarity chron indicated by magnetostratigraphy. This age estimate makes the Xujiayao hominin among the oldest mid-Pleistocene hominins with derived Neanderthal traits in East Asia. This age is consistent with the time when early Denisovans, a sister group of Neanderthals, appeared and colonized eastern Eurasia. Our updated age and the Neanderthal-like traits of the Xujiayao Homo fossils, particu- larly the Denisovan-like molar teeth, make it possible that the Xujiayao hominin could represent an early Denisovan. © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 1. Introduction 2014; Wu and Trinkaus, 2014). Multidisciplinary studies by several Chinese institutions using a variety of techniques have sought to With an inventory of >60 early Paleolithic sites, >100,000 in date the Xujiayao hominin since the 1970s. Based on initial ana- situ stone tools, and tons of mammal fossils, the Nihewan Basin in lyses of its faunal composition and stratigraphy, the site was sug- North China is one of the most important Paleolithic areas in East gested to date to at least >100 ka and possibly to the late Asia (Yuan et al., 2011). Xujiayao (also named Houjiayao, 40060 N, mid-Pleistocene (Jia et al., 1979). Uranium (U)-series dating of six 113 590 E, 980 m above sea level) is an open-air Paleolithic site that mammalian fossil teeth provided an estimated age of ~90e125 ka was discovered on the northwestern margin of the Nihewan Basin (Chen et al., 1982, 1984), which was possibly underestimated due in 1974 (Fig. 1). This site not only contains Oldowan-like stone to an open system in bones and teeth (Grün et al., 2014; Shen et al., tools (i.e., Mode 1 core and flake technologies) and mammalian 2014). Conventional 14C dating of organic material and mammalian fossils, but more importantly has yielded archaic Homo fossils (Jia bones later indicated an age older than 40 ka (Institute of and Wei, 1976; Jia et al., 1979; Wu, 1980; Bae, 2010; Wu et al., 2013, Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 1991; Hayase, 2012). Based on magnetostratigraphy and correlation be- tween the Xujiayao environmental magnetic data and marine d18O * Corresponding author. record, an age as old as ~500 ka has been suggested (Løvlie et al., 26 10 E-mail address: [email protected] (H. Ao). 2001; Wang et al., 2008). Recent Al/ Be burial dating of two http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2017.01.014 0047-2484/© 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). H. Ao et al. / Journal of Human Evolution 106 (2017) 54e65 55 Figure 1. Location maps of the Xujiayao Paleolithic site. (a) Topographic map of the eastern Tibetan Plateau margin, the Nihewan Basin, and other hominin sites mentioned in the text. The Yellow and Yangtze rivers are the major river systems in north and south China, respectively. (b) Topographic map of the Nihewan Basin, the surrounding mountains, and two main rivers (Sanggan and Huliu rivers), with locations of the Xujiayao, Majuangou, and Shangshazui Paleolithic sites. The Nihewan Basin map is modified with permission from Tu et al. (2015). Triangles, solid circles, and five-pointed stars represent the sites occupied by modern H. sapiens, archaic H. sapiens,andH. erectus, respectively, with ages for Majuangou from Zhu et al. (2004), Shangshazui from Ao et al. (2013c), Yuanmou from Zhu et al. (2008), Gongwangling from Zhu et al. (2015), Yunxian from Dennell (2015), Zhoukoudian from Shen et al. (2001, 2004a, 2009), Chenjiawo from An and Ho (1989), Nanjing from Zhao et al. (2001), Hexian from Grün et al. (1998), Chaoxian from Shen et al. (2010), Jinniushan from Rosenberg et al. (2006), Dali from Xiao et al. (2002), Daoxian from Liu et al. (2015), Liujiang from Shen et al. (2002), Luna Cave from Bae et al. (2014),ZhirenCavefromLiu et al. (2010b), and Huanglong Cave from Shen et al. (2013). quartz samples yielded a weighted mean age of 240 ± 50 ka (Tu The exposed horizontally stratified fluvio-lacustrine succession et al., 2015). The various age estimates have resulted in intense is ~17 m thick at Xujiayao (Fig. 2). To further extend the magneto- debate about the age of the Xujiayao hominin (Tu et al., 2015 and stratigraphic record, we dug a well down to a stratigraphic level of references therein), which complicates in-depth investigation of 24.2 m (the 0 m stratigraphic level indicates the top of the section). its evolutionary significance. The sequence is dominated by silt, clay, silty clay, and sand (Fig. 2). With recent improvement of electron spin resonance (ESR) About 200 m to the northwest of the studied section, the fluvio- technology, ESR dating of fluvio-lacustrine sediments provides an lacustrine sediments are patchily capped by last interglacial soil opportunity to date Pleistocene archeological sites (e.g., Voinchet (S1, not sampled; Wang et al., 2008). The artifact layer is located in et al., 2010). Electron spin resonance dating has been applied suc- the ~8e12 m interval that consists of brown clay, grayish-yellow cessfully in the Nihewan Basin (Liu et al., 2010a, 2013, 2014a). Here, silty clay, and grayish-dark silty clay (Fig. 2). we present new age estimates for the Xujiayao hominin using ESR Xujiayao is best known for the excavation of 20 archaic Homo dating of quartz-bearing sediment and high-resolution magneto- fossils (Jia and Wei, 1976; Jia et al., 1979; Wu, 1980; Wu et al., 2013, stratigraphy of the fluvio-lacustrine sequence and address the 2014; Wu and Trinkaus, 2014). The site was discovered during field paleoanthropological significance of the Xujiayao hominin in the surveys in 1974, which were conducted by the Institute of Vertebrate light of this updated dating evidence. Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Subsequent extensive excavation between 1976 and 1979 yielded 2. Geological and archeological settings two fairly complete parietals, a number of parietal fragments, a nearly complete temporal, two relatively complete occipitals, the The Nihewan Basin is an intermontane basin situated about ramus and posterior body of a lower jaw, a mandible, a juvenile 150 km northwest of the well-known Zhoukoudian Homo erectus maxilla, two upper molars, and a lower molar (Jia and Wei, 1976; Jia sites (Fig. 1) and has a relatively small area of roughly 150e200 km2 et al., 1979; Wu, 1980; Wu and Poirier, 1995). Some Homo fossils are (Yuan et al., 2011). Mid-Pliocene to Late Pleistocene fluvio- shown in Figure 3, including a maxilla, 3 molars, three parietal lacustrine sediments, which are known as the Nihewan Forma- fragments, an occipital, a mandible, and a temporal. Furthermore, tion (sensu lato; Barbour, 1924), were widely deposited in the Basin more than 30,000 pieces of stone artifacts (examples in Fig. 4), fl (Deng et al., 2008; Ao et al., 2013a). Stratigraphically continuous including cores, akes, scrapers, points, burins, borers, stone balls or and thick sequences of the Nihewan Formation are mainly exposed bolas, and chopper-chopping tools, have been reported from the site > along the southwest-northeast trending Sanggan River and along (Jia and Wei, 1976; Jia et al., 1979). Additionally, 10,000 stone tools the southeast-northwest trending Huliu River (Fig. 1). The eastern have been unearthed in recent years but have not yet been published margin of the Basin is a rich source of Pleistocene Paleolithic sites, formally. The artifacts (Fig. 5) from Xujiayao are typical Oldowan- with the presently oldest known Paleolithic evidence being docu- like technology and are made primarily of quartz (Ma, 2009). mented as early as ~1.7 Ma from the Majuangou and Shangshazui Direct hard-hammer percussion is the principal stone-knapping and sites (Zhu et al., 2004; Ao et al., 2013b).
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