The Liujiang Cranium Gets Scanned and Continues the Debate
A 3D Computed Tomography Scan Of The Liujiang Cranium
excerpt:
In a nutshell, Wu Xiujie, from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has completed a 3D computed tomography scan of the Liujiang cranium. The Liujiang cranium was discovered in the Tongtianyan Cave of the Guangxi Zhuang region in 1958 by some farmers. It looks remarkably modern, actually very similar to 20,000 year old skulls from Japan, but no quantifiable dating technique was ever preformed on the samples until many years later.
A group of Chinese researchers collaborated with Phillip Tobias in 2002 and dated the probable sediments via uranium-series dating. They figured the sediments dated to 111,000 to 139,000 years ago. But since the actual stratigraphic layer where the fossil came out of is unknown, they extended the age range to 68,000 years to 153,000 years old. The citation is provided below.
If Liujiang, a modern looking cranium, is truly 153,000 years old — then it directly competes with the modern looking crania from Bouri and Omo, Ethiopia, dating to similar time period and challenges the out of Africa model of human dispersal. Given the uncertainty of the exact stratigraphic layer the fossil came from, people have simply considered it the most complete human fossil from late Pleistocene China, (130,000 to 10,000 years ago).
Which of course means that the Homo Sapiens multiregional evolution or out-of-Africa debate rages on.