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The Yunxian fossil skulls (Hubei province, China): a review of essential but controversial hominins

Les crânes fossiles de Yunxian (Hubei, China) : un état de l’art de ces hominines essentiels mais controversés
Amélie Vialet, Florent Goussard, Sofwan Noerwidi et Réda Attia

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1Two very complete but damaged hominin skulls were discovered at the Yunxian site in China (Hubei province) in 1990 and 1991 among numerous animal bones and lithic industry. Paleomagnetic analysis attributed the archaeological level to the Santa Rosa excursion, dated at around 1 Ma, which is consistent with the biochronology of the associated fauna. The fossil hominins are large, elongated and feature a developed supra-orbital torus and post-orbital constriction. However, the traits specific to Homo erectus (sagittal keeling, torus angularis or continuous transverse occipital torus) are absent. Despite this, when, two decades ago, we proposed a reconstruction of the skull of Yunxian II, we considered this hominin to be H. erectus sensu lato, i.e. belonging to the variability of this species. Since then, discoveries in Asia have updated our point of view by integrating concepts such as the Denisovians or the H. longi species. A new proposal for the reconstruction of Yunxian II has been published, bringing it closer to Late Middle Pleistocene specimens. On the contrary, a new chronological study has pushed it back to 1.7 Ma. In this enriched (and somewhat confused) context, we propose to discuss these issues, including a review of the 3D reconstruction of the Yunxian II skull and new anthropological analyses (morphometrics on the skull and metrics of the teeth). It will highlight the issues involved in the reconstruction processes. Indeed, a crucial question remains concerning the degree of curvature of the frontal bone, which was treated differently in the two reconstructions of the Yunxian II skull (flat versus curved). This obviously influences the interpretation of this fossil, already made difficult by the combination of its primitive (flat face, elongated skull, large teeth) and derived (large endocranial volume) characteristics.

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Amélie Vialet, Florent Goussard, Sofwan Noerwidi et Réda Attia, « The Yunxian fossil skulls (Hubei province, China): a review of essential but controversial hominins »Bulletins et mémoires de la Société d’Anthropologie de Paris [En ligne], 37(S) | 2025, mis en ligne le 16 janvier 2025, consulté le 09 février 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/bmsap/15464 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/133pq

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Auteurs

Amélie Vialet

UMR 7194 – Histoire Naturelle de l’Homme Préhistorique (HNHP), Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, CNRS, UPVD, Association Sorbonne Universités, Musée de l’Homme, Paris, France ; amelie.vialet[at]mnhn.fr

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Florent Goussard

UMR 7207 CR2P, Sorbonne Université, MNHN, CNRS, Paris, France

Sofwan Noerwidi

Pusat Riset Arkeometri, Organisasi Riset Arkeologi, BRIN, Jakarta, Indonesia

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Réda Attia

Sorbonne Université – ISCD, Paris, France

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Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.

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