Tianyuan man

Tianyuan man are the remains of one of the earliest modern humans to inhabit East Asia. In 2007, researchers found 34 bone fragments belonging to a single individual at the Tianyuan Cave near Beijing, China. Radiocarbon dating shows the bones to be between 42,000 and 39,000 years old, which may be slightly younger than the only other finds of bones of a similar age at the Niah Caves in Sarawak on the South-east Asian island of Borneo.

Subsistence
Nothing is known directly about the material culture of this individual, since so far no artifacts or other cultural remains have been found at the site. Isotope analysis suggests that a substantial part of his diet came from freshwater fish.

Morphology
Tianyuan man is considered an early modern homo sapiens. He lacks several mandibular features common among western Eurasian late archaic humans, showing its divergence. Based on the rate of dental occlusal attrition, it is estimated he died in his 40s or 50s.

Archaeogenetics
The first DNA analysis of the Tianyuan remains (focussing on mtDNA and chromosome 21) was published in 2013 and revealed that Tianyuan man is related "to many present-day Asians and Native Americans" and had already diverged genetically from the ancestors of modern Europeans. He belonged to mitochondrial DNA haplogroup B, and paternal haplogroup K2b.

A genome-wide analysis confirmed the close affinity of Tianyuan man to modern East Asian and Southeast Asians, but also showed that he is not directly ancestral to modern populations, but rather represents a deeply diverged member of the East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) lineage, basal to all later populations of East and Southeast Asia. The Tianyuan man was determined to be part of an Initial Upper Paleolithic wave (>45kya) "ascribed to a population movement with uniform genetic features and material culture" (Ancient East Eurasians), and sharing deep ancestry with other ancient specimens such as Bacho Kiro, Peștera cu Oase, the Ust'-Ishim man, as well as the ancestors of modern day Papuans (Australasians). The lineage ancestral to the Tianyuan man (dubbed as the "ESEA" lineage) is inferred to have diverged from the Ancient East Eurasians, following a Southern Route dispersal, and subsequently diverged into the Hoabinhian lineage, the Tianyuan lineage, and a lineage ancestral to all modern East and Southeast Asians.

A Tianyuan-like population contributed around 32-50% ancestry to the Ancient North Eurasians, with the remainder being made up by Early West Eurasian ancestry represented by the Kostenki-14 specimen. A c. 34,000 year old specimen from Northern Mongolia (Salkhit) derives approximately 83% ancestry from a Tianyuan-like population, with the remainder (17%) being derived from a Kostenki14-like population. The Salkhit individual displayed a complex relationship to the Ancient North Eurasians.

Tianyuan man also exhibits a unique genetic affinity for GoyetQ116-1 from the Goyet Caves in Namur province, Belgium. GoyetQ116-1 shares more alleles with Tianyuan man than does any other sampled ancient individual from West Eurasia. The GoyetQ116-1 specimen is inferred to have received 14-23% ancestry from an Early East Eurasian population distantly related to the Tianyuan man. The Tianyuan man displays high genetic affinities to a 33,000 year old specimen (AR33K) between the Amur region and modern day Mongolia, suggesting that Tianyuan-like ancestry was widespreaded in Northeastern Asia during the Paleolithic period.

Basal East Asian or "Deep Asian" ancestry represented by Tianyuan or Andamanese Onge contributed to the Peopling of Southeast Asia, following Australasian ancestry and preceding Mesolithic and Neolithic expansions of Ancient Southern East Asians associated with the spread of Austroasiatic and Austronesian languages.