Dali (fossil)
| Common name | Dali Skull |
|---|---|
| Species | Probably archaic Homo sapiens |
| Age | 209,000 ±23,000 |
| Place discovered | Dali County, Shaanxi, China |
| Date discovered | 1978 |
| Discovered by | Liu Shuntang |
The Dali Man (Chinese: 大荔人) is attested by complete fossilized skull, probably representing an early form of Archaic Homo sapiens which lived in the Late Middle period. It was discovered by Liu Shuntang in 1978 in Dali County, Shaanxi Province, China.
The dating of the skull has been a subject of debate. Uranium-series dating of ox teeth from the site obtained a date of 209,000 ±23,000 years, however, the nature of the association between the hominid cranium and the ox teeth remains uncertain. The fossil is considered to be the most complete skull of that time period found in China.
Access to Dali is restricted. The Dali cranium is currently housed in the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, China.
The Dali cranium is interesting to modern anthropologists as it is possibly an ideal specimen of an archaic Homo sapiens. It has a mixture of traits from both Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. The details of the face and skull are however distinct from European Neanderthals and earlier European hominids like the finds from Petralona and Atapuerca.
The skull is low and long, though the posterior end of the skull is rounded, unlike the contemporary broad-based H. erectus or top-wide skull of modern humans. It does however bear a prominent sagittal keel, a trait found in H. erectus but in few modern humans. The brain appears to have been sitting mainly behind the face, giving an extremely low forehead. The cranial capacity is estimated to around 1 120 cc, at the lower end of the modern human range, and upper end of the H. erectus range. The base of the cranium is less robust than in H. erectus. The posterior margin lacks the heavy neck muscle attachment seen in that group. Unlike the distinct tubular form seen in H. erectus, the tympanic plate is thin and foreshortened, a condition similar to that of modern humans.
Unlike H. erectus skulls, the Dali skulls lack the "pinched" look between the face and the cranial vault.
...
Wikipedia