title: Homo erectus in Salkhit, Mongolia?
abstract: In 2006, a skullcap was discovered in Salkhit, Mongolia. The Salkhit skullcap has a mostly complete frontal, two partially complete parietals, and nasals. No chronometric dating has been published yet, and suggested dates range from early Middle Pleistocene to terminal Late Pleistocene. While no chronometric date has been published, the presence of archaic features has led to a potential affiliation with archaic hominin species. If it is indeed Homo erectus or archaic Homo sapiens, Salkhit implies a much earlier spread of hominins farther north and inland Asia than previously thought. In this paper, the nature of the archaic features in Salkhit is investigated. The Salkhit skullcap morphology and metrics were compared with Middle and Late Pleistocene hominin fossils from northeast Asia: Zhoukoudian Locality 1, Dali, and Zhoukoudian Upper Cave. Results show an interesting pattern: on one hand, the archaic features that Salkhit shares with the Zhoukoudian Locality 1 sample also are shared with other later hominins; on the other hand, Salkhit is different from the Middle Pleistocene materials in the same way later hominins differ from the Middle Pleistocene sample, in having a broader frontal and thinner supraorbital region. This may reflect encephalization and gracilization, a modernization trend found in many places. It is concluded that the archaic features observed in Salkhit are regionally predominant features rather than diagnostic features of an archaic species.
authors: Department of Anthropology, University of California at Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521-0418, USA. Electronic address: shlee@ucr.edu.
authors: Sang-Hee
authors: SH
authors: Lee
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001208:Asia; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003393:Cranial Sutures / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D005580:Fossils / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000266:history; D005624:Frontal Bone / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D049690:History, Ancient; D015186:Hominidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification; D006801:Humans; D008986:Mongolia; D009295:Nasal Bone / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D009915:Orbit / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D010294:Parietal Bone / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D012886:Skull / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D013045:Species Specificity