DISCOVERY OF A HOMO SP. TOOTH ASSOCIATED WITH A MAMMALIAN CAVE FAUNA OF LATE MIDDLE PLEISTOCENE AGE, NORTHERN THAILAND

In the context of a Thai-French paleontological project, a single huma n tooth, a right upper fourth premolar, has been discovered in Norther n Thailand among mammalian fossil remains excavated from the ''Thum Wi man Nakin'' cave. Based on the fauna associated with the human tooth a nd the Uranium/Thorium datings from the overlying calcite beds, we att ribute this site to the Late Middle Pleistocene. The human tooth was c ompared with teeth of Chinese and Javanese Homo erectus Homo sapiens n eanderthalensis and Homo sapiens sapiens as well as teeth of apes (Ora ng-utan). The tooth has archaic features of the crown which are simila r to Homo erectus. It also has derived features of the root which make s it aligns with Neanderthals and modem humans. Consequently, it has b een tentatively attributed to Homo sp. Homo remains have not been prev iously reported from Thailand, and the specimen described here is ther efore the first and oldest fossil human remain from this country. (C) 1998 Academic Press.