Lithostratigraphy and depositional history of the Late Cenozoic hominid-bearing successions in the Yuanmou Basin, southwest China

Abstract

Late Cenozoic strata bearing hominids and hominoids are distributed in the Yuanmou Basin, Yunnan, southwest China. Incisors of Homo erectus discovered in these strata in 1965 reportedly show primitive features known in Africa (Hu, Acta geologica sinica 1 (1973, p. 65). However, recent paleomagnetic study has revealed that the age of the hominid correlates to the early Brunhes chron (Hyodo et al., Journal of human evolution (2001), submitted). The lithostratigraphy of the successions that yield many mammalian fossils including those of the hominid, and the record of Equus is re-examined. The successions are divided in ascending order into the Longchuan, Shagou, Gantang (newly proposed Yangliuchun and Daipojing Members) and Yuanmou (newly proposed Dainawu and Niujianbao Members) Formations, based on different lithology and sedimentary facies. The newly proposed depositional systems of the formations are in ascending order, alluvial fan, ephemeral braided river, sandy braided river, ephemeral gravelly braided river and alluvial fan systems. The change in facies and paleocurrents revealed in the successions suggest that the basin was initiated as a syncline basin at ca 3.5 Ma and was completed as an asymmetric half graben by active movement of the eastern marginal fault in the early Middle Pleistocene.