The Dispersal of Denisovans and Neanderthals in China

The Dispersal of Denisovans and Neanderthals in China

doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2025.53.4.003-027

A.P. Derevianko
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

The initial peopling of China by H. erectus occurred ~1.7 Ma BP, maybe even earlier. Despite climatic changes in the Pleistocene, ecological conditions for the permanent occupation of this territory by members of that taxon remained favorable, causing their continuous morphological and genetic evolution in situ along the line leading to H. sapiens. As a result, between 120-40 ka BP, they evolved convergently into early anatomically modern humans in this territory. A large part of the morphological variation of Late Middle to Early Upper Pleistocene hominins in China is attributable not only to the divergence of separate groups of H. erectus descendants, who convergently, under different ecological conditions, evolved into anatomically modern humans using various adaptive strategies, but also to the immigration of Denisovans and their assimilation of native groups. Contacts between the latter and Neanderthals in the second half of the Upper Pleistocene cannot be ruled out too.

Keywords: H. erectus, Denisovans (informal name of H. s. denisovan), H. s. neanderthalensis, pebble-flake, Denisovan, and Mousterian industries