Human Remains from the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition of Southwest China Suggest a Complex Evolutionary History for East Asians
Human Remains from the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition of Southwest China Suggest a Complex Evolutionary History for East Asians Darren Curnoe1*, Ji Xueping2,3*, Andy I. R. Herries4, Bai Kanning5, Paul S. C. Tac¸on6, Bao Zhende7, David Fink8, Zhu Yunsheng5, John Hellstrom9, Luo Yun7, Gerasimos Cassis1, Su Bing10, Stephen Wroe1, Hong Shi10, William C. H. Parr1, Huang Shengmin11, Natalie Rogers1 1 School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2 Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology, Kunming, Yunnan, China, 3 Archeology Research Center, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan, China, 4 Archaeomagnetism Laboratory, Archaeology Program, School of Historical and European Studies, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 5 Honghe Prefectural Institute of Cultural Relics, Mengzi, Yunnan, China, 6 Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit, School of Humanities, Gold Coast Campus, Griffith University, Southport, Queensland, Australia, 7 Mengzi Institute of Cultural Relics, Mengzi, Yunnan, China, 8 Institute for Environmental Research, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Sydney, Australia, 9 School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 10 State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology and Kunming Primate Research Centre, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China, 11 Youjiang Nationalities Museum, Baise, Guangxi, China Abstract Background: Later Pleistocene human evolution in East Asia remains poorly understood owing to a scarcity of well described, reliably classified and accurately dated fossils. Southwest China has been identified from genetic research as a hotspot of human diversity, containing ancient mtDNA and Y-DNA lineages, and has yielded a number of human remains thought to derive from Pleistocene deposits.
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