Early modern humans and morphological variation in Southeast Asia: fossil evidence from Tam Pa Ling, Laos

PLoS One. 2015 Apr 7;10(4):e0121193. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0121193. eCollection 2015.

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 Ling's 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.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Anthropology, Physical*
  • Fossils*
  • Humans
  • Laos
  • Mandible / anatomy & histology*

Grants and funding

The chronological aspects of this research were funded by Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Grant DP1093049 and LIEF Grant LE100100094. This work is supported by the French Ministry of Foreign Affair, the Ministry of Culture and Information of LAO PDR and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, the UPR2147 (CNRS), the UMR7206 (MNHN, Paris), the UMR7516 (CNRS/IPGS Strasbourg). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.