Late Middle Pleistocene Hominins Research Articles

Morphological and morphometric analyses of a late Middle Pleistocene hominin mandible from Hualongdong, China

Excavations in Hualongdong (HLD), East China, have yielded abundant hominin fossils dated to 300 ka. There is a nearly complete mandible that fits well with a partial cranium, and together they compose the skull labeled as HLD 6. Thus far, detailed morphological description and comparisons of the mandible have not been conducted. Here we present a comprehensive morphological, metric, and geometric morphometric assessment of this mandible and compare it with both adult and immature specimens of Pleistocene hominins and recent modern humans. Results indicate that the HLD 6 mandible exhibits a mosaic morphological pattern characterized by a robust corpus and relatively gracile symphysis and ramus. The moderately developed mental trigone and a clear anterior mandibular incurvation of the HLD 6 mandible are reminiscent of Late Pleistocene hominin and recent modern human morphology. However, the weak expression of all these features indicates that this mandible does not possess a true chin. Moreover, a suite of archaic features that resemble those of Middle Pleistocene hominins includes pronounced alveolar planum, superior transverse torus, thick corpus, a pronounced endocondyloid crest, and a well-developed medial pterygoid tubercle. The geometric morphometric analysis further confirms the mosaic pattern of the HLD 6 mandible. The combination of both archaic and modern human features identified in the HLD 6 mandible is unexpected, given its late Middle Pleistocene age and differs from approximately contemporaneous Homo members such as Xujiayao, Penghu, and Xiahe. This mosaic pattern has never been recorded in late Middle Pleistocene hominin fossil assemblages in East Asia. The HLD 6 mandible provides further support for the high morphological diversity during late Middle Pleistocene hominin evolution. With these findings, it is possible that modern human morphologies are present as early as 300 ka and earlier than the emergence of modern humans in East Asia.

Late Acheulean Lithic Assemblages From Locality 010 at Gürgürbaba Hill (Eastern Anatolia)

The province of Van in north-eastern Turkey served as a land bridge between Africa and Eurasia during the Palaeolithic. The region is of particular relevance for understanding the movement of hominins between these continents. This study concerns the lithic remains from a locality at Gürgürbaba Hill, named Locality 010, north of the village of Ulupamir (Erciş district). Locality 010 was dated to 311±32 kya by terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides method, which coincides with Marine Isotope Stage 9 (MIS 9), a Middle Pleistocene interglacial period. The assemblage from this site is attributed to the Late Acheulean and resembles that of the southern Caucasus. This similarity indicates that the artefacts from Locality 010 were probably produced by late Lower Palaeolithic technology in a broad sense. These findings suggest local adaptations of late Middle Pleistocene hominins to high plateau environments.

Evolution of cranial capacity revisited: A view from the late Middle Pleistocene cranium from Xujiayao, China

The Late Middle Pleistocene hominin fossils from the Xujiayao site in northern China have been closely studied in light of their morphological variability. However, all previous studies have focused on separated cranial fragments. Here, we report the first reconstruction of a fairly complete posterior cranium, Xujiayao 6 (XJY 6), confidently dated to ∼200–160 ka, which facilitated an assessment of its overall cranial size. XJY 6 was reconstructed from three of the original fragments—the PA1486 (No.7/XJY 6a) occipital bone, PA1490 (No.10/XJY 6b) right parietal bone, and PA1498 (No.17/XJY 15) left temporal bone—which originated from the same young adult individual. The XJY 6 endocranial capacity, estimated by measuring endocranial volume, was estimated using multiple regression formulae derived from ectocranial and endocranial measurements on select samples of Pleistocene hominins and recent modern humans. The results indicate that the larger pooled sample of both Pleistocene and recent modern humans was more robust for the endocranial capacity estimate. Based on the pooled sample using the ectocranial and endocranial measurements, we conservatively estimate the XJY 6 endocranial volume to be ∼1700 cm3 with a 95% confidence interval of 1555–1781 cm3. This is close to Xuchang 1, which dates to 125–105 ka and whose endocranial volume is ∼1800 cm3. Thus, XJY 6 provides the earliest evidence of a brain size that falls in the upper range of Neanderthals and modern Homo sapiens. XJY 6, together with Xuchang 1, Homo floresiensis, Homo luzonensis, and Homo naledi, challenge the general pattern that brain size gradually increases over geological time. This study also finds that hominin brain size expansion occurred at different rates across time and space.

Morphological description and evolutionary significance of 300 ka hominin facial bones from Hualongdong, China

Late Middle Pleistocene hominins in Africa displaying key modern morphologies by 315 ka are claimed as the earliest Homo sapiens. Evolutionary relationships among East Asian hominins appear complex due to a growing fossil record of late Middle Pleistocene hominins from the region, reflecting mosaic morphologies that contribute to a lack of consensus on when and how the transition to modern humans transpired. Newly discovered 300 ka hominin fossils from Hualongdong, China, provide further evidence to clarify these relationships in the region. In this study, facial morphology of the juvenile partial cranium (HLD 6) is described and qualitatively and quantitatively compared with that of other key Early, Middle, and Late Pleistocene hominins from East Asia, Africa, West Asia, and Europe and with a sample of modern humans. Qualitatively, facial morphology of HLD 6 resembles that of Early and Middle Pleistocene hominins from Zhoukoudian, Nanjing, Dali, and Jinniushan in China, as well as others from Java, Africa, and Europe in some of these features (e.g., supraorbital and malar regions), and Late Pleistocene hominins and modern humans from East Asia, Africa, and Europe in other features (e.g., weak prognathism, flat face and features in nasal and hard plate regions). Comparisons of HLD 6 measurements to group means and multivariate analyses support close affinities of HLD 6 to Late Pleistocene hominins and modern humans. Expression of a mosaic morphological pattern in the HLD 6 facial skeleton further complicates evolutionary interpretations of regional morphological diversity in East Asia. The prevalence of modern features in HLD 6 suggests that the hominin population to which HLD 6 belonged may represent the earliest pre-modern humans in East Asia. Thus, the transition from archaic to modern morphology in East Asian hominins may have occurred at least by 300 ka, which is 80,000 to 100,000 years earlier than previously recognized.

Lithic technological responses to environmental change during the penultimate glacial cycle (MIS 7–6) at the Yangshang site, western Chinese Loess Plateau

AbstractA multidisciplinary fieldwork and research project was recently begun at the Yangshang site (220–140 ka), a late Early Paleolithic locale in the western Chinese Loess Plateau. 1696 lithic artifacts and 337 faunal remains were recovered during the excavation. Sedimentological and paleoenvironmental investigations indicate the site preserves a relatively long and minimally disturbed archaeological sequence associated with paleoenvironmental changes during MIS 7–6. A detailed techno-typological analysis of Yangshang's lithic assemblages was undertaken to examine the influence of glacial cycles on late Middle Pleistocene hominin technological strategies in the western Chinese Loess Plateau. The results show that while the Yangshang site is dominated by quartz-based core/flake assemblages typical of most Early Paleolithic sites in North China, the lithic assemblages provide evidence that different provisioning systems existed during the penultimate glaciation. We argue that these shifts reflect changes in land use and mobility that were tied to climate change. Our results suggest that theoretically informed statistical analyses of so-called unchanging and crude lithic technology can yield meaningful evidence for behavioral shifts.

Constraining the Likely Technological Niches of Late Middle Pleistocene Hominins with Homo naledi as Case Study

We develop a framework to differentiate the technological niches of co-existing hominin species by reviewing some theoretical biases influential in thinking about techno-behaviours of extinct hominins, such as a teleological bias in discussing technological evolution. We suggest that some stone-tool classification systems underestimate technological variability, while overestimating the complexity of the behaviours most commonly represented. To model the likely technological niches of extinct populations, we combine ecological principles (i.e. competitive exclusion) with physical anthropology and the archaeological record. We test the framework by applying it to the co-existence of Homo naledi and Homo sapiens during the late Middle Pleistocene in southern Africa. Based on our analysis, we suggest that tool use was probably not an essential part of H. naledi’s niche, but that technology occasionally provided caloric benefits. In contrast, tool use was a structural part of the H. sapiens way of life. We provide reasoning for our interpretation that the latter population is associated with more sophisticated reduction strategies and the development of prepared core technology. The method also has applicability to cases such as the co-existence of different toolmakers during the Earlier Stone Age (ESA) in East Africa and the co-existence of Neanderthals and H. sapiens in Eurasia.

Hominin diversity in East Asia during the Middle Pleistocene: A premolar endostructural perspective

Following the recent studies of East Asian mid-Middle to early Late Pleistocene hominin material, a large spectrum of morphological diversity has been recognized and the coexistence of archaic (‘Homo erectus-like’) and derived (‘modern-like’) dental morphological patterns has been highlighted. In fact, for most of these Chinese fossils, generally categorized as ‘archaic Homo sapiens’ or ‘post-H. erectus Homo’, the taxonomic attribution is a matter of contention. With the help of μCT techniques and a deformation-based 3D geometric morphometric approach, we focused on the morphological variation in the enamel–dentine junction (EDJ) of 18 upper and lower premolars from Chinese Middle Pleistocene hominins. We then compared our results with a number of fossil and modern human groups, including Early Pleistocene H. erectus from Sangiran; late Early Pleistocene hominins from Tighenif, Algeria; classic Neanderthals; and modern humans. Our results highlight an evolutionary/chronological trend of crown base reduction, elevation of EDJ topography, and EDJ surface simplification in the hominin groups studied here. Moreover, this study brings insights to the taxonomy/phylogeny of 6 late Middle Pleistocene specimens whose evolutionary placement has been debated for decades. Among these specimens, Changyang premolars show features that can be aligned with the Asian H. erectus hypodigm, whereas Panxian Dadong and Tongzi premolars are more similar to Late Pleistocene Homo. Compared with early to mid-Middle Pleistocene hominins in East Asia, late Middle Pleistocene hominins evince an enlarged morphological variation. A persistence of archaic morphotypes and possible admixture among populations during the late Middle Pleistocene are discussed.

Immature remains and the first partial skeleton of a juvenile Homo naledi, a late Middle Pleistocene hominin from South Africa.

Immature remains are critical for understanding maturational processes in hominin species as well as for interpreting changes in ontogenetic development in hominin evolution. The study of these subjects is hindered by the fact that associated juvenile remains are extremely rare in the hominin fossil record. Here we describe an assemblage of immature remains of Homo naledi recovered from the 2013–2014 excavation season. From this assemblage, we attribute 16 postcranial elements and a partial mandible with some dentition to a single juvenile Homo naledi individual. The find includes postcranial elements never before discovered as immature elements in the sub-equatorial early hominin fossil record, and contributes new data to the field of hominin ontogeny.

Deciphering African late middle Pleistocene hominin diversity and the origin of our species

The origin of Homo sapiens remains a matter of debate. The extent and geographic patterning of morphological diversity among Late Middle Pleistocene (LMP) African hominins is largely unknown, thus precluding the definition of boundaries of variability in early H. sapiens and the interpretation of individual fossils. Here we use a phylogenetic modelling method to predict possible morphologies of a last common ancestor of all modern humans, which we compare to LMP African fossils (KNM-ES 11693, Florisbad, Irhoud 1, Omo II, and LH18). Our results support a complex process for the evolution of H. sapiens, with the recognition of different, geographically localised, populations and lineages in Africa – not all of which contributed to our species’ origin. Based on the available fossils, H. sapiens appears to have originated from the coalescence of South and, possibly, East-African source populations, while North-African fossils may represent a population which introgressed into Neandertals during the LMP.

Re-examination of "ancient" fossils discovered in the middle of the 20th century. Late Middle Pleistocene hominins from Montmaurin Caves (Southwest of France)

In 1945, the activity of the quarries settled near the village of Montmaurin, 75km south-west from Toulouse in France, led to the discovery of several caves filled by archeological deposits. After the visit done by H. Begouën and the Abbey H. Breuil, L. Méroc did excavations from 1946 to 1961 mainly in the Coupe-Gorge cavity which has yielded a lot of lithics and bones. Among them, there were human remains: a juvenile partial mandible (corresponding to the symphyseal part), a right maxillary bone bearing P4-C and 3 isolated teeth (1 canine, P3 and M3). In a nearby vertical gallery called La Niche, one complete adult mandible bearing its molars, 2 vertebras and one fragmentary tibia were also discovered. All these fossils, except the 3 latter ones, where published in detail. But, due to the lack of radiometric dating, such fossils were less and less included in studies. The purpose of this paper is to re-examine these human remains which are relevant to discuss the emergence of the Neandertal lineage in Europe. Indeed, the mandible from La Niche, dated to the IS7 based on biochronology, is not fully Neandertal but it shows a combination of archaic and derived features, respectively on the bone itself and on teeth, which keeps open the discussion.

Late Middle Pleistocene hominin teeth from Tongzi, southern China

In 1972 and 1983, four hominin teeth were recovered from Yanhui Cave, Tongzi, southern China and assigned to later Homo erectus or archaic Homo sapiens. The teeth can be dated to approximately 172,000–240,000 years before present. Here, in addition to the standard morphological comparisons, we reevaluate the morphology of the hominin teeth using geometric morphometric analyses and micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) scans. The Tongzi teeth were primarily compared to hominins from the same chronological period (late Middle Pleistocene) and/or the same geographic area (East Asia), although a wide range of hominins were included in the comparative sample. This study reveals that the Tongzi teeth do not fit the morphological pattern of classic H. erectus, and expands our understanding of the morphological diversity of the Asian Middle Pleistocene hominins. Overall, our results point to the existence of more than one paleodeme in East Asia during this period: one that can be taxonomically classified as H. erectus sensu stricto (represented by fossils such as Zhoukoudian, Hexian, and Yiyuan) and a second that is characterized by the expression of derived traits more commonly found in later Homo (such as the crown symmetry, lingual reduction, and simplified EDJ surface of the third premolar). More fossil and genetic findings will help assess the taxonomy of the “non-erectus” Asian Middle Pleistocene populations, like the Tongzi hominins.

A reassessment of the early archaeological record at Leang Burung 2, a Late Pleistocene rock-shelter site on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

This paper presents a reassessment of the archaeological record at Leang Burung 2, a key early human occupation site in the Late Pleistocene of Southeast Asia. Excavated originally by Ian Glover in 1975, this limestone rock-shelter in the Maros karsts of Sulawesi, Indonesia, has long held significance in our understanding of early human dispersals into ‘Wallacea’, the vast zone of oceanic islands between continental Asia and Australia. We present new stratigraphic information and dating evidence from Leang Burung 2 collected during the course of our excavations at this site in 2007 and 2011–13. Our findings suggest that the classic Late Pleistocene modern human occupation sequence identified previously at Leang Burung 2, and proposed to span around 31,000 to 19,000 conventional 14C years BP (~35–24 ka cal BP), may actually represent an amalgam of reworked archaeological materials. Sources for cultural materials of mixed ages comprise breccias from the rear wall of the rock-shelter–remnants of older, eroded deposits dated to 35–23 ka cal BP–and cultural remains of early Holocene antiquity. Below the upper levels affected by the mass loss of Late Pleistocene deposits, our deep-trench excavations uncovered evidence for an earlier hominin presence at the site. These findings include fossils of now-extinct proboscideans and other ‘megafauna’ in stratified context, as well as a cobble-based stone artifact technology comparable to that produced by late Middle Pleistocene hominins elsewhere on Sulawesi.

Hominin distribution and density patterns in Pleistocene China: Climatic influences

At the broad Early/Middle/Late Pleistocene level, the Chinese hominin fossil site distribution data may inform on hominin mobility/behavioral/interaction strategies. Hominins during the Early Pleistocene and well into the Middle Pleistocene appear to be more restricted to central and southern China. By the advent of the late Middle Pleistocene hominins are found regularly in northern China and by the Late Pleistocene, hominin fossils are found in all latitudes and longitudes encompassing modern day China, and beginning some time during marine isotope stage 3 appear in higher altitudinal regions (e.g., Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau) as well. During the Middle Pleistocene a number of sites are found well away from major riverways suggesting an ability to transport potable water or perhaps an ability to be able to locate smaller bodies of fresh water. Given the paucity of evidence for storage containers until relatively recently in time, it is perhaps not that surprising that many of the Middle Pleistocene open-air sites are reportedly found in or near lacustrine environments. Hominins had a more restricted range due to climatic variation during the Early and early Middle Pleistocene, but were able to more successfully adapt to changing climes beginning during the late Middle Pleistocene. In part, this is due to a range of behavioral changes that hominins developed during the Pleistocene.

Estimation of cranial capacity of healthy adult students of a medical university in eastern part of Nepal

The Late Middle Pleistocene hominin fossils from the Xujiayao site in northern China have been closely studied in light of their morphological variability. However, all previous studies have focused on separated cranial fragments. Here, we report the first reconstruction of a fairly complete posterior cranium, Xujiayao 6 (XJY 6), confidently dated to ∼200–160 ka, which facilitated an assessment of its overall cranial size. XJY 6 was reconstructed from three of the original fragments—the PA1486 (No.7/XJY 6a) occipital bone, PA1490 (No.10/XJY 6b) right parietal bone, and PA1498 (No.17/XJY 15) left temporal bone—which originated from the same young adult individual. The XJY 6 endocranial capacity, estimated by measuring endocranial volume, was estimated using multiple regression formulae derived from ectocranial and endocranial measurements on select samples of Pleistocene hominins and recent modern humans. The results indicate that the larger pooled sample of both Pleistocene and recent modern humans was more robust for the endocranial capacity estimate. Based on the pooled sample using the ectocranial and endocranial measurements, we conservatively estimate the XJY 6 endocranial volume to be ∼1700 cm3 with a 95% confidence interval of 1555–1781 cm3. This is close to Xuchang 1, which dates to 125–105 ka and whose endocranial volume is ∼1800 cm3. Thus, XJY 6 provides the earliest evidence of a brain size that falls in the upper range of Neanderthals and modern Homo sapiens. XJY 6, together with Xuchang 1, Homo floresiensis, Homo luzonensis, and Homo naledi, challenge the general pattern that brain size gradually increases over geological time. This study also finds that hominin brain size expansion occurred at different rates across time and space.

Characterizing the Lower Paleolithic bone industry from Schöningen 12 II: A multi-proxy study

Although preservation of Paleolithic faunal assemblages from open-air settings is often poor, the Lower Paleolithic sites of Schöningen provide exceptionally well-preserved mammalian faunal material for investigating hominin/animal relationships. Pleistocene fossil assemblages, however, usually reflect a complex taphonomic history in which natural and anthropogenic processes are often superimposed. A number of examples of osseous finds that resemble tools were recently discovered in the MIS 9 deposits of Schöningen 12 II. Non-anthropogenic agents are known to produce surface modifications mimicking human artifacts and the identification of osseous remains used and/or deliberately modified by ancient hominins is often controversial in such old contexts. Multiple lines of evidence are thus useful for distinguishing between osseous artifacts and “eco-facts”.In this paper, the recognition of the use of bone for different technological purposes by late Middle Pleistocene hominins is addressed through a multi-proxy study combining geoarcheology, bone taphonomy, zooarcheology, and use-wear analysis. This allowed the identification of the processes and agents responsible for the formation and modification of the different bone assemblages of Schöningen 12 II. Our analysis points to different types of bones having been likely used as tools. These results expand the diversity of the organic technological repertoire of the Middle Pleistocene hominins, making Schöningen 12 II a remarkable new source of information on osseous technology long before the Upper Paleolithic, the period traditionally viewed as the start of the systematic use of bone tools. Together with other observations of bone tools documented during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, the results from Schöningen show that archeologists may have underestimated the diversity and importance of osseous technology among archaic hominins.

The European saber-toothed cat (Homotherium latidens) found in the “Spear Horizon” at Schöningen (Germany)

The 300,000 year old Lower Paleolithic site Schöningen 13 II-4 became world famous with the discovery of the oldest well-preserved and complete wooden spears. Through ongoing excavations, new archaeological discoveries of scientific importance are still being made from the same archaeological layer where the spears were found. In this context, remains of a rare carnivore species, the European saber-toothed cat (Homotherium latidens), were recovered. Here we present five teeth and one humerus fragment that are unambiguously from two individual saber-toothed cats. The humerus is a unique specimen; it shows evidence of hominin impacts and use as a percussor.The Homotherium remains from Schöningen are the best documented finds of this species in an archaeological setting and they are amongst the youngest specimens of Homotherium in Europe. The presence of this species as a carnivore competitor would certainly have impacted the lives of late Middle Pleistocene hominins. The discovery illustrates the possible day-to-day challenges that the Schöningen hominins would have faced and suggests that the wooden spears were not necessarily only used for hunting, but possibly also as a weapon for self-defense.

Late Middle Pleistocene hominin teeth from Panxian Dadong, South China

The hominin teeth and evidence of hominin activities recovered from 1991 to 2005 at the Panxian Dadong site in South China are dated to the late Middle Pleistocene (MIS 8–6 or ca. 130–300 ka), a period for which very little is known about the morphology of Asian populations. The present study provides the first detailed morphometric description and comparisons of four hominin teeth (I1, C1, P3 and P3) from this site. Our study shows that the Panxian Dadong teeth combine archaic and derived features that align them with Middle and Upper Pleistocene fossils from East and West Asia and Europe. These teeth do not display any typical Neanderthal features and they are generally more derived than other contemporaneous populations from Asia and Africa. However, the derived traits are not diagnostic enough to specifically link the Panxian Dadong teeth to Homo sapiens, a common problem when analyzing the Middle Pleistocene dental record from Africa and Asia. These findings are contextualized in the discussion of the evolutionary course of Asian Middle Pleistocene hominins, and they highlight the necessity of incorporating the Asian fossil record in the still open debate about the origin of H. sapiens.

Environment and climate during MIS 7 and their implications for the late Middle Pleistocene hominins: The contribution of Mollet cave, Serinyà, Girona, northeastern Iberian Peninsula

Marine Isotope Stage 7 (MIS 7) is an interglacial that has not been a major topic of scientific interest, yet is interesting because it contains five warm and cold phases (MIS 7e-a) within a brief period of time (ca. 246–186 ka). In this context, there are several sites that contain Middle Pleistocene human remains in Europe, including Mollet cave, the subject of this study. Analyses of the small vertebrates from this cave, together with the numerical dating (ca. 215 ka), established the environmental and climatic conditions in which the hominins who frequented the cave lived. The results obtained situate the Middle Pleistocene hominins of Mollet cave in the MIS 7c substage, indicating that the occupation by humans took place in a transitional phase from a warm to a cold stage with forest development.

The Jinniushan hominin pedal skeleton from the late Middle Pleistocene of China

Bipedalism has long been recognized as the seminal adaptation of the hominin radiation and thus used to distinguish hominins from great ape fossils. Notwithstanding preconceptions and varied interpretations, the distinctive features of the modern human foot and accompanying striding gait, appear to be recent innovations that are largely absent in the earliest facultative bipeds. These distinctive features are mainly components of fixed longitudinal and transverse pedal arches, and of a uniquely derived hallucal metatarsophalangeal joint. They enhance ankle joint plantar flexor function and accommodate localized peak plantar pressures at the medial ball during terminal stance. To date, the paleontological record has yielded very little of the hominin foot, especially of the Middle Pleistocene hominins. New specimens from this time interval should help provide insights into the timing and pattern of what appears to be a mosaic pattern of evolution of the modern human foot features. Here we describe the fossil hominin foot skeleton recovered from the Jinniushan site, Liaoning Province, People's Republic of China. It affords a singular glimpse of the pedal morphology of a late Middle Pleistocene hominin (c.f. Homo heidlebergensis). Dated to 200 ka or older, this foot offers the earliest evidence for increased stability of the medial longitudinal arch, while retaining a number of primitive features apparently characteristic of robust premodern hominins, including lower arches and a less stable hallucal metatarsophalangeal joint (medial ball) than in modern humans. These features reflect different foot capabilities and suggest the bipedal stride of the Jinniushan hominin differed subtlety from that of modern humans.

The late Middle Pleistocene hominin fossil record of eastern Asia: Synthesis and review

Traditionally, Middle Pleistocene hominin fossils that cannot be allocated to Homo erectus sensu lato or modern H. sapiens have been assigned to different specific taxa. For example, in eastern Asia, these hominin fossils have been classified as archaic, early, or premodern H. sapiens. An increasing number of Middle Pleistocene hominin fossils are currently being assigned to H. heidelbergensis. This is particularly the case for the African and European Middle Pleistocene hominin fossil record. There have been suggestions that perhaps the eastern Asian late Middle Pleistocene hominins can also be allocated to the H. heidelbergensis hypodigm. In this article, I review the current state of the late Middle Pleistocene hominin fossil record from eastern Asia and examine the various arguments for assigning these hominins to the different specific taxa. The two primary conclusions drawn from this review are as follows: 1) little evidence currently exists in the eastern Asian Middle Pleistocene hominin fossil record to support their assignment to H. heidelbergensis; and 2) rather than add to the growing list of hominin fossil taxa by using taxonomic names like H. daliensis for northeast Asian fossils and H. mabaensis for Southeast Asian fossils, it is better to err on the side of caution and continue to use the term archaic H. sapiens to represent all of these hominin fossils. What should be evident from this review is the need for an increase in the quality and quantity of the eastern Asian hominin fossil data set. Fortunately, with the increasing number of large-scale multidisciplinary paleoanthropological field and laboratory research projects in eastern Asia, the record is quickly becoming better understood.