New Quaternary Mammalian Faunas and Cave Deposits in the Zhoukoudian Area, Beijing

Abstract

AbstractFrom 1985 to 1987, four new localities with abundant fossil mammals were discovered by Cao, Tian and others in the Zhoukoudian (Choukoutien) area, Beijing. They are the East, West, Shangdian and Donglingzi caves. The East Cave fauna consists of 28 speices of mammals and its age is middle Early Pleistocene. The East Cave assemblage shows that a temperature–falling event took place at around 1.20 Ma B.P. at Zhoukoudian. Sixteen species of mammals were collected from the West Cave, which are mainly forms of late Early Pleistocene age. The West Cave fauna represents a transitional fauna from the East Cave fauna (dry–cold) to the fauna (warm) at locality 9. The Shangdian Cave fauna is composed of four forms, being Middle Pleistocene in age. The Donglingzi Cave fauna contains 21 Late Pleistocene forms. In the cave two fossil horizons may be distinguished. The age of the lower horizon is early Late Pleistocene, which is equivalent to that of the New Cave fauna; while the fauna of the upper horizon may be correlated with the Upper Cave fauna.