Mosaic dental morphology in a terminal Pleistocene hominin from Dushan Cave in southern China.

ABSTRACT: Recent studies reveal high degrees of morphological diversity in Late Pleistocene humans from East Asia. This variability was interpreted as complex demographic patterns with several migrations and possible survival of archaic groups. However, lack of well-described, reliably classified and accurately dated sites has seriously limited understanding of human evolution in terminal Pleistocene. Here we report a 15,000 years-old H. sapiens (Dushan 1) in South China with unusual mosaic features, such as large dental dimensions, cingulum-like structures at the dentine level in the posterior dentition and expression of a "crown buccal vertical groove complex", all of which are uncommon in modern humans and more typically found in Middle Pleistocene archaic humans. They could represent the late su

SUBMITTER: Liao W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6382942 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature