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9.2.3.7 Summary

So now we have overlapping possible date ranges in the middle Middle Pleistocene for the following hominids: (1) Lantian man, a primitive Homo erectus; (2) Peking man, a more advanced Homo erectus; and (3) Tongzi man, described as Homo sapiens. We are not insisting that these beings actually coexisted. Perhaps they did, perhaps they did not. What we are insisting on is this—scientists should not propose that the hominids definitely did not coexist simply on the basis of their morphological diversity. Yet this is exactly what has happened. Scientists have arranged Chinese fossil hominids in a temporal evolutionary sequence primarily by their physical type. This methodology insures that no fossil evidence shall ever fall outside the realm of evolutionary expectations. By using morphological differences in the fossils of hominids to resolve contradictory faunal, stratigraphic, chemical, radiometric, and geomagnetic datings in harmony with a favored evolutionary sequence, paleoanthropologists have allowed their preconceptions to obscure other possibilities.

9.2.4 Maba

In 1956, peasants digging for fertilizer in a cave near Maba, in Guangdong province, southern China, found a skull that was apparently from a primitive human being. Wu Rukang thought this hominid skull displayed Neanderthaloid features: “The supra-orbital tori of this skull are heavy and project markedly both forward and sidewise” (Jia 1980, p. 41). According to Chang (1962, p. 754), the data “seem to place the Ma’pa skull within the Neanderthaloid range.”

Aigner (1981, pp. 65–66) stated: “On the basis of their measurements and observations, Wu and Peng conclude the remains belong to a grade of organization similar to that of the European Neanderthals. . . . Coon (1969) agrees with the relative position of the hominid remains but emphasizes that it is not a Neanderthal in the classic sense of the word. He believes Mapa is on the threshold of modern Homo sapiens and is ‘mostly if not entirely Mongoloid.’”

There seems to be general agreement that the Maba skull is Homo sapiens (Han and Xu 1985, p. 285) with some Neanderthaloid features. Coon, it may be noted, believed that Homo erectus evolved directly into separate races of Homo sapiens in different parts of the world. Thus, according to Coon, the classic Neanderthals would have been restricted to Europe.

It is easy to see that scientists, in accordance with their evolutionary expectations, would want to place the Maba specimen in the very latest Middle Pleistocene or early Late Pleistocene, after Homo erectus. And in fact Wu Rukang stated: “Judging from the mammalian fauna associated with the Maba skull, its geological age is probably of late Middle Pleistocene or early Late Pleistocene” (Jia 1980, p. 41). This would give it a chronometric age of about 100,000 years.

Jia Lanpo placed the Maba skull at no earlier than the Riss-Würm interglacial, in the late Middle Pleistocene (Jia 1980, p. 41). Aigner (1981, p. 65) also agreed: “The primitive hominid and fauna including Stegodon suggest a late Middle Pleistocene dating though Kahlke (1961) suggests a Würm-equivalent age.” The Würm glaciation occurred in the early part of the Late Pleistocene.

Now let us take a close look at the associated fauna (Figure 11.6, p. 580), which Chang (1962, p. 754) said was “apparently a typical South China Middle Pleistocene assemblage.” The assemblage included mostly fossils that could only be classified according to their genus (Han and Xu 1985, p. 285). All of these genera existed throughout the Pleistocene, from Early to Late.

A probable minimum age for the Maba site is provided by one of the identifiable species, Elephas (Palaeoloxodon) namadicus Falconer et Cautley. This elephant apparently became extinct in the Late Pleistocene (Belyaeva et al. 1962, p. 370). Nilsson (1983, p. 487) stated that Palaeoloxodon namadicus was typical of the Pleistocene interglacials, the last of which (the European Eem or Chinese Tali-Lushan) occurred about 90,000–110,000 years ago (Aigner 1981, p. 33). This a minimum