Abstract: Since the discovery of the modern human fossils dated to about 40 ka BP at the Tianyuan Cave near Zhoukoudian in 2002, early modern human fossils have been found from several other sites in China including Huanglong Cave in Yunxi, Hubei Province and Zhiren Cave in Chongzuo, Guangxi. The findings of these human fossils indicate that early modern humans emerged about 100 ka BP in southern China. The recent discovery and related studies of human teeth at the Fuyan Cave in Daoxian, Hunan Province, further reveal that human groups with fully modern morphology appeared 120 ka-80 ka BP in some regions of southern China. At the same time, in northern China, human groups represented by Xujiayao still kept primitive morphology and did not evolve into early moderns. These research findings suggest that southern China is the central area for the formation and dispersal of modern humans in East Asia. Both early modern humans and fully modern humans probably first emerged in southern China, and then dispersed north. Available fossil evidence shows that Late Pleistocene humans in southern China exhibit pronounced variations and several different evolutionary groups may exist. The Zhiren Cave humans belong to the transitional type from archaic to early moderns; the Daoxian humans represent humans with fully modern morphology. Based on previous studies and analysis of the present paper, the authors believe that Late Pleistocene humans of Liujiang, Ziyang, Lijiang and Tianyuan Cave show more derived fossil morphologies and may represent a type of modern human similar to Daoxian. It is noteworthy that while this kind of research attracts attention to the issue of East Asian modern human emergence and dispersals, paleoanthropological communities have different opinions on this topic.

Key words: Modern human origins; Fully modern humans; Human fossils; Morphological traits