| Ref ID: | 27947 |
|---|---|
| Ref Type: | Journal Article |
| Authors: | Demeter, Fabrice Shackelford, Laura Westaway, Kira Duringer, Philippe Bacon, Anne-Marie Ponche, Jean-Luc Xiujie Wu, Thongsa Sayavongkhamdy Jian-Xin Zhao Barnes, Lani Boyon, Marc Phonphanh Sichanthongtip, Sénégas, Frank Karpoff, Anne-Mari |
| Title: | Early modern humans and morphological variation in Southeast Asia: fossil evidence from Tam Pa Ling, Laos |
| Date: | 2015 |
| Source: | PLOS One |
| Abstract: | Little is known about the timing of modern human emergence and occupation in Eastern Eurasia. However a rapid migration out of Africa into Southeast Asia by at least 60 ka is supported by archaeological, paleogenetic and paleoanthropological data. Recent discoveries in Laos, a modern human cranium (TPL1) from Tam Pa Lings cave, provided the first evidence for the presence of early modern humans in mainland Southeast Asia by 63-46 ka. In the current study, a complete human mandible representing a second individual, TPL 2, is described using discrete traits and geometric morphometrics with an emphasis on determining its population affinity. The TPL2 mandible has a chin and other discrete traits consistent with early modern humans, but it retains a robust lateral corpus and internal corporal morphology typical of archaic humans across the Old World. The mosaic morphology of TPL2 and the fully modern human morphology of TPL1 suggest that a large range of morphological variation was present in early modern human populations residing in the eastern Eurasia by MIS 3. |
| Date Created: | 4/13/2015 |
| Volume: | 10 |
| Number: | 4 |