Early Pleistocene Hominoid Fossil Assemblage From Mohui Cave, Tiandong County, Guangxi, South China And Its Significance Of Early Human Evolution

Study on Hominid, Hominoidea (new species), Gigantopithecus blacki and Mammalian fauna from Mohui cave in Bubing basin, Tiandong County, west Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, south China, indicates: first, characteristic of Mohui mammalian fauna is similar to early Pleistocene sites of Liucheng in Guangxi and Longgupo in Chongqing, south China. Paleomagnetic result of sediment analysis is normal polarity, considering the relative age from fauna, Mhhui deposition should better be assigned to the Olduvai Event, around 1.8 ～ 2 Ma B.P.; Second, Morphologically, the Hominid teeth have many similar features to Homo erectus in China. The size of the Mohui hominid tooth is markedly larger than that of Chinese H. erectus may imply it represents a much earlier representative of the taxon; Third, the Hominoid teeth are morphologically close to genus of Lufengpithecus from Miocene lacustrine sediment in Kaiyuan, Lufeng and Yuanmou in Yunnan province, southwestern China, however, distinguishing from those of other Hominoidea. So, they are assigned to genus of Lufengpithecus, and attributed to a new species of Lufengpithecus bubingensis. This new taxon in Hominoidea shows that Lufengpithecus had never set foot on human evolution, their descendant had been extinct at beginning of the Pleistocene, probably for reason of climate changes in east Asia; Assemblage of early Homo erectus, L. bubingensis and G. blacki in east Asia figures a different scenes of Hominoid family from Africa, it also imply that climate and environmental changes in late Miocene, which broadly thought due to the uplift of Qinghai-Tibet plateau, reduced forests of Lufengpithecus habitat should be the main reason why they went to decline. Along with Lufengpithecus extinct in early Pleistocene, Gigantopithecus in mid-Pleistocene and Pongo disappeared in late Pleistocene in south China.Thus, unambiguous stratigraphic relationship, reliable bio-stratigraphic age and distinct taxonomical features of fossil evidence will provide important provenance for study of early human origins and evolution.