CHINA’S LOST VALLEY OF HUMANS THAT COULD REWRITE HUMAN ORIGINS

Could China’s Three Gorges region have been one of the last great refuges—or even a heartland—of the Denisovans?

Between roughly 300,000 and 50,000 years ago, a chain of caves along the Yangtze and Han river systems preserved human teeth, jaw fragments, stone tools and worked animal remains. This video explores the evidence from Yumidong, Xinglongdong, Changyang, Huanglong and Bailong caves, including the unusual Xinglongdong teeth, the Changyang jaw fragment and the controversial engraved ivory object sometimes described as a tusk fragment.

The Three Gorges may have formed a natural migration corridor connecting the Tibetan Plateau, central China and the plains of eastern Asia. Although no DNA or proteins have yet identified the Three Gorges fossils as Denisovan, discoveries at Xiahe, Harbin, Penghu and Tam Ngu Hao 2 show that Denisovan populations occupied enormously different environments across eastern Asia. That expanding evidence raises a serious question: should Chinese fossils from this period now be investigated primarily within a Denisovan framework, just as contemporary European fossils are routinely considered within a Neanderthal one?

Timestamps

00:00 China’s unidentified ancient humans
01:12 Europe’s Neanderthals—and Asia’s missing population
02:31 The Three Gorges migration corridor
04:02 Yumidong: repeated occupation beside the Yangtze
05:34 Xinglongdong: human teeth and worked ivory
07:27 The mysterious engraved tusk fragment
08:42 Changyang and its fragmentary jaw
10:04 Huanglong and Bailong caves
11:37 Why teeth may reveal Denisovan connections
13:01 Xiahe, Harbin, Penghu and Laos
14:38 Was central China a Denisovan heartland?
16:08 A hypothesis waiting for proteins and DNA

Sources

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https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2022.93...

Gao et al., “120–150 ka Human Tooth and Ivory Engravings from Xinglongdong Cave, Three Gorges Region, South China,” Chinese Science Bulletin (2004):
https://doi.org/10.1360/03wd0214

Chen et al., “A Late Middle Pleistocene Denisovan Mandible from the Tibetan Plateau,” Nature (2019):
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-11...

Zhang et al., “Denisovan DNA in Late Pleistocene Sediments from Baishiya Karst Cave on the Tibetan Plateau,” Science (2020):
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abb6320

Zhang et al., “Middle and Late Pleistocene Denisovan Subsistence at Baishiya Karst Cave,” Nature (2024):
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07...

Demeter et al., “A Middle Pleistocene Denisovan Molar from the Annamite Chain of Northern Laos,” Nature Communications (2022):
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29...

Jacobs et al., “Timing of Archaic Hominin Occupation of Denisova Cave in Southern Siberia,” Nature (2019):
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-08...

Douka et al., “Age Estimates for Hominin Fossils and the Onset of the Upper Palaeolithic at Denisova Cave,” Nature (2019):
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-08...