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- Title
Early presence of Homo sapiens in Southeast Asia by 86–68 kyr at Tam Pà Ling, Northern Laos.
- Authors
Freidline, Sarah E.; Westaway, Kira E.; Joannes-Boyau, Renaud; Duringer, Philippe; Ponche, Jean-Luc; Morley, Mike W.; Hernandez, Vito C.; McAllister-Hayward, Meghan S.; McColl, Hugh; Zanolli, Clément; Gunz, Philipp; Bergmann, Inga; Sichanthongtip, Phonephanh; Sihanam, Daovee; Boualaphane, Souliphane; Luangkhoth, Thonglith; Souksavatdy, Viengkeo; Dosseto, Anthony; Boesch, Quentin; Patole-Edoumba, Elise
- Abstract
The timing of the first arrival of Homo sapiens in East Asia from Africa and the degree to which they interbred with or replaced local archaic populations is controversial. Previous discoveries from Tam Pà Ling cave (Laos) identified H. sapiens in Southeast Asia by at least 46 kyr. We report on a recently discovered frontal bone (TPL 6) and tibial fragment (TPL 7) found in the deepest layers of TPL. Bayesian modeling of luminescence dating of sediments and U-series and combined U-series-ESR dating of mammalian teeth reveals a depositional sequence spanning ~86 kyr. TPL 6 confirms the presence of H. sapiens by 70 ± 3 kyr, and TPL 7 extends this range to 77 ± 9 kyr, supporting an early dispersal of H. sapiens into Southeast Asia. Geometric morphometric analyses of TPL 6 suggest descent from a gracile immigrant population rather than evolution from or admixture with local archaic populations. Here the authors report new human fossils from Tam Pà Ling cave, Laos, consisting of a cranial and a tibial fragment, dated to 68–86 thousand years ago. This find confirms that Homo sapiens were present in Southeast Asia by this time and the shape of the fossils indicates they may have descended from non-local populations.
- Subjects
SOUTHEAST Asia; LAOS; ELECTRON spin resonance dating; HUMAN beings; FOSSIL hominids; FRONTAL bone; THERMOLUMINESCENCE dating; GEOMETRIC analysis
- Publication
Nature Communications, 2023, Vol 14, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
2041-1723
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/s41467-023-38715-y