title: New dating of the Homo erectus cranium from Lantian (Gongwangling), China.
abstract: The Homo erectus cranium from Gongwangling, Lantian County, Shaanxi Province is the oldest fossil hominin specimen from North China. It was found in 1964 in a layer below the Jaramillo subchron and was attributed to loess (L) L15 in the Chinese loess-palaeosol sequence, with an estimated age of ca. 1.15 Ma (millions of years ago). Here, we demonstrate that there is a stratigraphical hiatus in the Gongwangling section immediately below loess 15, and the cranium in fact lies in palaeosol (S) S22 or S23, the age of which is ca. 1.54-1.65 Ma. Closely spaced palaeomagnetic sampling at two sections at Gongwangling and one at Jiacun, 10 km to the north, indicate that the fossil layer at Gongwangling and a similar fossil horizon at Jiacun were deposited shortly before a short period of normal polarity above the Olduvai subchron. This is attributed to the Gilsa Event that has been dated elsewhere to ca. 1.62 Ma. Our investigations thus demonstrate that the Gongwangling cranium is slightly older than ca. 1.62 Ma, probably ca. 1.63 Ma, and significantly older than previously supposed. This re-dating now makes Gongwangling the second oldest site outside Africa (after Dmanisi) with cranial remains, and causes substantial re-adjustment in the early fossil hominin record in Eurasia.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Marginal Sea Geology, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China; State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710075, China. Electronic address: zhuzy@gig.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Zhao-Yu
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom. Electronic address: r.w.dennell@exeter.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dennell
authors.affiliation: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China.
authors.forename: Wei-Wen
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Marginal Sea Geology, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China; State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710075, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Marginal Sea Geology, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China.
authors.forename: Zhi-Guo
authors.initials: ZG
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Marginal Sea Geology, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China.
authors.forename: Shi-Fan
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Marginal Sea Geology, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China.
authors.forename: Jiu-Bing
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China.
authors.forename: Wu
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Marginal Sea Geology, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China.
authors.forename: Shu-Qing
authors.initials: SQ
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Marginal Sea Geology, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China.
authors.forename: Jiang-Wei
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Marginal Sea Geology, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China.
authors.forename: Hou-Yun
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Marginal Sea Geology, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China.
authors.forename: Ting-Ping
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Ou Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Marginal Sea Geology, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China.
authors.forename: Hua-Mei
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002681:China; D005580:Fossils; D015186:Hominidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D010163:Paleontology; D055110:Radiometric Dating; D012886:Skull / Q000033:anatomy & histology*
keywords: Asia; Lantian Homo erectus; Palaeomagnetism; Re-dating; Stratigraphy