Forbidden Archeology_ The Full Unabridged Edition - Michael A. Cremo [401]
All of this suggests that Nestoritherium could very well have appeared as a late survival in the Middle Pleistocene at Gongwangling.
At Gongwangling, Nestoritherium, which Zhou Mingzhen considered “unexpected . . . in the Konwanling fauna,” is represented by a single “shattered and decayed” jaw fragment (Zhou, M. et al. 1965, p.1041). Furthermore, Wu Rukang stated that in general the fossils found at Gongwangling “consist of odd, scattered bits and pieces which seem to have been thrown together after being washed down from the wooded areas of the southern slope of Kungwangling Hill” (Wu, R. 1966, p. 85). This opens up the possibility that fossils of different ages may have been incorporated into the deposits at the site.
We conclude, therefore, that the presence of certain southern Chinese animals at Gongwangling, absent at Zhoukoudian, may be a reflection of the more southerly location of Gongwangling rather than a difference in the sites’ ages.
Moving on to the remaining Gongwangling taxa, we find that some represent species not present at Zhoukoudian but still living in China (Figure 9.4, III). That they are still living means they cannot justify an early date for Gongwangling.
Two other newly designated species (Figure 9.4, IV), Leptobos brevicornis Hu et Qi and Dicerorhinus lantianensis, are unique to Gongwangling and thus cannot be used for dating comparisons with other sites, such as Zhoukoudian.
Still other Gongwangling species (Figure 9.4, V), although not present at Zhoukoudian, are found at other middle Middle Pleistocene sites in China. Thus they establish contemporaneity with Zhoukoudian.
Some authors have tried to use the Leptobos sp. fossils from Gongwangling (Figure 9.4, VI) to establish a pre-Zhoukoudian date for the site. Such proposals are, however, are open to question. Leptobos is an extinct ox that dates back to the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene, but according to Zhou Mingzhen et al. (1965, p. 1043) the fossil skulls with horns discovered at Gongwangling differ substantially from those normally attributed to Leptobos. Zhou Mingzhen et al. (1965, p. 1043) and Aigner (1981, p. 81) stated that the Gongwangling variety is comparable to a related species, Bison priscus = Bison palaeosinensis, which existed throughout the Middle and Late Pleistocene (Nilsson 1983, p. 483). Thus the so-called Leptobos fossils cannot securely be used to establish a preZhoukoudian date for Gongwangling.
Studying various Gongwangling faunal lists, we found that some researchers have changed some of the original species designations reported at Gongwangling ( Zhou M. et al. 1965), apparently to reflect a pre-Zhoukoudian date for the site (Figure 9.4, VII). We have already discussed the implications of Aigner’s reclassification of Ochotonoides to Ochotona at Zhoukoudian (Section 9.2.3.3).
Ursus thibetanus kokeni, reported by Zhou at Gongwangling (Zhou M. et al. 1965, p. 1040), was reclassified Ursus cf. etruscus in a later faunal list (Han and Xu 1985, p. 281). Ursus thibetanus kokeni is found at Zhoukoudian Locality 1 (Han and Xu 1985, p. 282), in the middle Middle Pleistocene, while Ursus etruscus is an Early Pleistocene form. Zhou was quite definite that the teeth from the Gongwangling specimen were “indistinguishable from the specimens from the Kwangsi caves, which are identical with U. thibetanus kokeni described by Matthew and Granger from the Yenchingkou fissure deposits” (Zhou, M. et al. 1965, p. 1040). Aigner and Laughlin (1973, p. 101) list the Gongwangling species as Ursus thibetanus, the living Asiatic black bear.
Similarly, Acinonyx pleistocaenicus (cheetah) reported by Zhou at Gongwangling is reclassified by some as Sivapanthera pleistocaenicus, an Early Pleistocene form (Han and Xu 1985, p. 271). But Zhou stated that the Gongwangling