ANTIQUITY OF HOMO-SAPIENS IN CHINA

TEN years ago a well-preserved skull of an early form of Home sapiens was unearthed from Pleistocene cave deposits at the Jinniushan site in China. Here we present electron-spin resonance (ESR) and uranium-seri es dates from five fossil animal teeth collected from the hominid loca lity. The minimum ESR ages (195-165 kyr) are about 50 kyr younger than the uranium-series dates. Taken together, the results suggest an age of about 200 kyr or older for the Jinniushan skull, making it among th e oldest H. sapiens material found in China, and almost as old as some of the latest Chinese H. erectus. This raises the possibility of the coexistence of the two species in China. The morphology of the skull s uggests a strong local component of evolution, consonant with the 'mul tiregional continuity' model of the evolution of H. sapiens.