Abstract:

The current state of the Chinese paleoanthropological record is quite interesting to say the least. There are so many research groups active in the field right now that a number of important questions/hypotheses are being resolved and tested on a regular basis. As a result, reports of Chinese paleoanthropological discoveries appear quite regularly in international media outlets. Many of these findings revolve around questions related to the earliest peopling of China and exactly who these hominins were, to the “mystery ape”, to the Movius Line (a line that will apparently never die), to Homo juluensis and H. longi, and to modern human origins. The number of major questions/hypotheses being asked and tested currently using the Chinese data is too numerous to list. However, in this brief review we touch upon a number of these questions/hypotheses, with a particular focus on how the field has changed over the past several decades. As noted at the end of this paper, it is an amazing time to be riding the crest of the wave into the field of Chinese paleoanthropology. The “old guard” should take pride in the fact that many of these questions/hypotheses developed from the firm foundation they established, while the “current guard” should be recognized for not only coming up with innovative ways to answer many of these older questions, but developing further models/questions that need to be tested. This means that the “future guard” will be well positioned to expand on what is happening now in Chinese paleoanthropology.

Key words: Out of Africa I, Homo erectus, Homo juluensis, Homo longi, Handaxes, modern human origins