title: The first archaic Homo from Taiwan.
abstract: Recent studies of an increasing number of hominin fossils highlight regional and chronological diversities of archaic Homo in the Pleistocene of eastern Asia. However, such a realization is still based on limited geographical occurrences mainly from Indonesia, China and Russian Altai. Here we describe a newly discovered archaic Homo mandible from Taiwan (Penghu 1), which further increases the diversity of Pleistocene Asian hominins. Penghu 1 revealed an unexpectedly late survival (younger than 450 but most likely 190-10 thousand years ago) of robust, apparently primitive dentognathic morphology in the periphery of the continent, which is unknown among the penecontemporaneous fossil records from other regions of Asia except for the mid-Middle Pleistocene Homo from Hexian, Eastern China. Such patterns of geographic trait distribution cannot be simply explained by clinal geographic variation of Homo erectus between northern China and Java, and suggests survival of multiple evolutionary lineages among archaic hominins before the arrival of modern humans in the region.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology, National Museum of Natural Science, 1, Guancian Road, Taichung 40453, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chun-Hsiang
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Nature and Science, 4-1-1 Amakubo, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki 305-0005, Japan [2] Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 3-1-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
authors.forename: Yousuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kaifu
authors.affiliation: Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, 41-2 Kanrin, Inuyama, Aichi 484-8506, Japan.
authors.forename: Masanaru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takai
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Nature and Science, 4-1-1 Amakubo, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki 305-0005, Japan.
authors.forename: Reiko T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Kono
authors.affiliation: Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Mills Road Building 142, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia.
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Grün
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Physical Anthropology, Ochanomizu University, 2-1-1 Otsuka, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112-8610, Japan.
authors.forename: Shuji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Matsu'ura
authors.affiliation: Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Mills Road Building 142, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia.
authors.forename: Les
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kinsley
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Science, Tunghai University, 0704 PO Box 988, No. 181, Sector 3, Taichung Port Road, Taichung 40704, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Liang-Kong
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005461:Fluorine / Q000032:analysis; D005843:Geography; D015186:Hominidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D006801:Humans; D008334:Mandible / Q000737:chemistry; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D055110:Radiometric Dating; D012964:Sodium / Q000032:analysis; D013624:Taiwan
chemical_list: D005461:Fluorine; D012964:Sodium