Central-East China – A Plio-Pleistocene Dispersal Corridor: The Current State of Evidence for Hominin Occupations

Abstract

Early hominins moved out of Africa and arrived in China sometime after 1.8 Ma. Using Majuangou, North China (1.71–1.66 Ma) and Yuanmou, South China (1.7 Ma) as the two tentative reference points for early hominin activity, we argue that similar paleoanthropological evidence should be present between these two localities in Central-East (CE) China. In particular, since the floral and faunal data strongly indicate that the region served as a continuous migration corridor throughout the Plio-Pleistocene, CE China should contain a diversity of evidence of early hominin activity. In this paper, we review the current state of Early and Middle Pleistocene paleoanthropological evidence in CE China. We note that there are questions/problems with some of the current evidence or interpretations of this evidence. However, the dataset forms a solid foundation from which to develop more detailed research programs and hypotheses to test. The key to investigating this region more thoroughly is systematic field and laboratory research conducted by a multi-disciplinary team of scientists.