Abstract:

In recent years, the origin and evolution of modern humans in East Asia has been a hot topic in paleoanthropology, Paleolithic Archaeology and molecular genetics communities. Evidence from fossils suggests that the MIS 5 stage was an important period in the emergence and evolution of early modern humans in South China, with the earliest appearance of modern humans in this region being traced back to the early Late Pleistocene, roughly around 120,000 years ago. It is noteworthy that fossil evidence of anatomically modern humans currently over 50,000 years old in East Asia all come from South China poviding key clues for exploring the origin of modern humans in East Asia, which raises some scientific questions. First, there are still debates about the stratigraphic age of the early modern human fossil sites in South China; second, most late modern humans appeared after 40,000 BP, and there is a lack of fossil evidence from 80,000 BP to 40,000 BP; and third, little is known about physical features and genetic characteristics of most of the modern humans in South China.

In this paper, the author systematically sorts out the Homo sapiens fossils found from South China over half a century and referring faunal assemblages coeval with those human fossils, in order to establish a preliminary spatial and temporal framework for the survival of modern humans in the region. More human fossil sites, more detailed stratigraphic/chronometric studies in the late Middle Pleistocene to Late Pleistocene in South China, paying more attention to the Paleolithic archaeological evidence, engaging in paleoenvironmental reconstruction, and using the molecular paleontology to explore the genetic structure of these early populations would be a significant contributions to further information on this time period in South China.

Key words: Modern human, Stratigraphy and chronology, Late Pleistocene, South China