YUANMOU
LOCATION
Hillock located between Danawu and Shangnabang
villages, Yuanmou County, Yunnan, eastern China.
DISCOVERY
F. Qan, 1965.
MATERIAL
Two incisor teeth.
DATING AND STRATIGRAPHIC CONTEXT
Lower Pleistocene Yuanmou Formation. Teeth found
in the uppermost strata (Member 4). Paleomagnetic
age estimates lie around 1.7 Ma (Qan, 1991), but due
to a possible discontinuity (Wu and Poirier, 1995),
other estimates are in the 600-500 Ka range (Liu and
Ding, 1984). ESR and fission-track dates from a level
well above the teeth produced a date of 1.3 Ma; this
probably postdates the teeth by at least 0.1 Ma (Qan
et al. 1991).ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXT
No direct archaeological associations with the teeth,
but several years subsequent to the fossil discovery, a
few scrapers were found at the site (Wen, 1978; Zhou
et al., 1991).PREVIOUS DESCRIPTIONS AND ANALYSES
The incisors have been compared in size to those of
Peking Man (Hu, 1973; Zhou and Hu, 1979).MORPHOLOGY
R and L upper 11s. Casts seen in Institute of Paleon-
tology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Beijing.
Both 11s quite worn, but would have been quite
high crowned, with modest lateral flare and relatively
straight mesial edge. Both long m/d, with moderately
excavated lingual surfaces on either side of raised cen-
tral keel. Keel flows into only modestly swollen, broad
lingual tubercle. Distal lingual depression on each
tooth bears a couple of vertical ridges, with deep
creases between them. Both 11s bear margocristae, the
distal more pronounced. In front view, crowns flare
out from stout, ovoid root. Roots broken on both
(more so on L). Longer preserved R root angles
slightly toward midline. Buccal surfaces gently convex,
with enamel mildly undulating across.REFERENCES
Hu, C. 1973. Ape-man teeth from Yuanmou, Yunnan. ActaLiu, T. and M. Ding. 1984. A tentative chronological corre-
lation of early fossil horizons in China with the Loess-
Deep Sea records. Acta Anthropol. Sin. 3: 93-101.
Qan, F. 1991. Environment of Yuanmou Man. Quat. Geol.
Paleoanthropol. Yuanmou. Science Press, Beijing, pp.
194-195.
Qan, F. et al. 1991. Lower Pleistocene Yuanmou Forma-
tion. Quat. Geol. Paleoanthropol. Yuanmou. Science Press,
Beijing, pp. 17-50.Geol. Sin. 1: 65-71.
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