Early presence of Homo sapiens in Southeast Asia by 86–68 kyr at Tam Pà Ling, Northern Laos

Sarah E. Freidline, Kira E. Westaway, Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Philippe Duringer, Jean-Luc Ponche, Mike W. Morley, Vito C. Hernandez, Meghan S. McAllister-Hayward, Hugh McColl, Clément Zanolli, Philipp Gunz, Inga Bergmann, Phonephanh Sichanthongtip, Daovee Sihanam, Souliphane Boualaphane, Thonglith Luangkhoth, Viengkeo Souksavatdy, Anthony Dosseto, Quentin Boesch, Elise Patole-Edoumba, Françoise Aubaile, Françoise Crozier, Eric Suzzoni, Sébastien Frangeul, Nicolas Bourgon, Alexandra Zachwieja, Tyler E. Dunn, Anne-Marie Bacon, Jean-Jacques Hublin, Laura Shackelford () and Fabrice Demeter ()
Additional contact information
Sarah E. Freidline: University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Blvd., Howard Phillips Hall
Kira E. Westaway: Macquarie University
Renaud Joannes-Boyau: Southern Cross University
Philippe Duringer: Ecole et Observatoire des Sciences de la Terre, Institut de Physique du Globe de Strasbourg (IPGS), UMR 7516 CNRS, Université de Strasbourg
Jean-Luc Ponche: Université de Strasbourg, Laboratoire Image, Ville Environnement
Mike W. Morley: Flinders University
Vito C. Hernandez: Flinders University
Meghan S. McAllister-Hayward: Flinders University
Hugh McColl: Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen
Clément Zanolli: Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, MCC, PACEA, UMR 5199
Philipp Gunz: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Inga Bergmann: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Phonephanh Sichanthongtip: Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism
Daovee Sihanam: Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism
Souliphane Boualaphane: Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism
Thonglith Luangkhoth: Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism
Viengkeo Souksavatdy: Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism
Anthony Dosseto: University of Wollongong
Quentin Boesch: Ecole et Observatoire des Sciences de la Terre, Institut de Physique du Globe de Strasbourg (IPGS), UMR 7516 CNRS, Université de Strasbourg
Elise Patole-Edoumba: Muséum d’Histoire naturelle de La Rochelle
Françoise Aubaile: Eco-anthropologie (EA), Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, CNRS, Université Paris Cité
Françoise Crozier: IRD, DIADE
Eric Suzzoni: Spitteurs Pan, Technical Cave Supervision and Exploration
Sébastien Frangeul: Spitteurs Pan, Technical Cave Supervision and Exploration
Nicolas Bourgon: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Alexandra Zachwieja: University of Minnesota Medical School
Tyler E. Dunn: Oregon Health & Sciences University
Anne-Marie Bacon: Université Paris Cité, BABEL CNRS UMR
Jean-Jacques Hublin: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Laura Shackelford: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Fabrice Demeter: Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-21

Abstract: Abstract The timing of the first arrival of Homo sapiens in East Asia from Africa and the degree to which they interbred with or replaced local archaic populations is controversial. Previous discoveries from Tam Pà Ling cave (Laos) identified H. sapiens in Southeast Asia by at least 46 kyr. We report on a recently discovered frontal bone (TPL 6) and tibial fragment (TPL 7) found in the deepest layers of TPL. Bayesian modeling of luminescence dating of sediments and U-series and combined U-series-ESR dating of mammalian teeth reveals a depositional sequence spanning ~86 kyr. TPL 6 confirms the presence of H. sapiens by 70 ± 3 kyr, and TPL 7 extends this range to 77 ± 9 kyr, supporting an early dispersal of H. sapiens into Southeast Asia. Geometric morphometric analyses of TPL 6 suggest descent from a gracile immigrant population rather than evolution from or admixture with local archaic populations.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38715-y Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-38715-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38715-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().