Yuanmou Man - Dating

Dating

The dating has been indirectly questioned by Geoffrey Pope who argued that evidence does not support the appearance of hominidae in Asia prior to 1 million years ago. (this skepticism has since lifted, with additional findings in the last 25 years). There are still, however, conflicting opinions regarding the age of the Yuanmou Fm. and Yuanmou Man. You et al. (1978) suggested that Member 4 in the upper part of the formation is middle Pleistocene and should be designated the Shangnabang Fm., while the sediments exposed at Shagou containing Enhydriodon cf. falconeri should be designated the Shagou Fm. with an age of Pliocene.

Liu et al. (1983) believed the age of Yuanmou Man was Middle Pleistocene, did not exceed 0.73 Ma BP, and was probably contemporaneous with Peking Man. Subsequently, Qian (1985) conducted further studies of the age of Yuanmou Man, but still obtained an age of 1.7 Ma BP, or Early Pleistocene. These investigations initiated beneficial discussion, although further conflicting opinions persist regarding depositional environment, paleoclimatology, glaciation, and other aspects.

According to Qian et al. (1991), palaeomagnetic dates from near where the teeth were recovered average 1.7 Ma BP. Older research by Liu and Ding (1984) noted that the faunal sequence at the site was inverted, with more extinct species in the upper levels than deeper in the deposit, and based on this evidence they suggest to put the age of the Yuanmou man into the Middle Pleistocene, that is about 0.5 - 0.6 Ma BP.