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Age and paleoenvironment of Xiaogushan fauna at Haicheng, Liaoning

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Article  in  Chinese Science Bulletin · September 2010

DOI: 10.1007/s11434-010-3227-z

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Article
Geology August 2010 Vol.55 No.24: 2704–2708
doi: 10.1007/s11434-010-3227-z

SPECIAL TOPICS:

Age and paleoenvironment of Xiaogushan fauna at Haicheng,

Liaoning Province
DONG Wei1, FU RenYi2 & HUANG WeiWen1
1
Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrates, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Beijing 100044, China;
2
Institute of Paleontology, Shenyang Normal University, Shenyang 110034, China

Received September 28, 2009; accepted January 29, 2010

A mammalian fauna composed of 40 species associated with Xiaogushan Man was unearthed during the archaeological excava-
tions from 1981 to 2007 at Xiaogushan Paleolithic Site, Haicheng, Liaoning Province. The analyses of the fauna and comparison
with other related faunas indicate that Xiaogushan fauna is very similar to that of Shanchengzi, Gulongshan and Yushu. It is a
typical fauna of Northern Region. Its age is within the middle to late stages of the Late Pleistocene (80–20 ka). Influenced by cold
period MIS4, the cold forms appeared in the fauna. Nevertheless the decrease in temperature was not very much and the climate
was still a temperate one. The fauna’s environment was generally humid, with large forest, some water areas and grasslands. It is
suitable for prehistoric human habitation during temperate seasons with considerable food and water resources. The cold period
MIS4 might push prehistoric human southward to temperate areas or stimulate them to develop fire using and making techniques.

Late Pleistocene, mammalian fauna, Xiaogushan, Haicheng, Liaoning Province, Paleolithic site

Citation: Dong W, Fu R Y, Huang W W. Age and paleoenvironment of Xiaogushan fauna at Haicheng, Liaoning Province. Chinese Sci Bull, 2010, 55:
2704−2708, doi: 10.1007/s11434-010-3227-z

Xiaogushan Paleolithic Site is on the fifth list of State Key
Cultural Heritage Units issued by the State Council of PRC
in 2001. It is located 30 km southeast of Haicheng County
of Anshan Municipality, Liaoning Province. The geographic
coordinates measures 40°34′53″N and 122°58′30″E (Figure
1) at the entrance of the cave. The elevation at the entrance
measures 156 m above sea level. Some artifacts were un-
covered from the cave during the general investigation of
Liaoning Province for the cultural heritage in the springtime
of 1981. A great number of artifacts and 14 species of
mammal fossils were unearthed during the test excavation
in October of 1981 [1]. A systematic excavation was carried
out in 1983 by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and
Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Liaoning Provincial Institute of Archaeology (formerly part
of Liaoning Museum), as well as Anshan Museum. Some
*Corresponding author (email: dongwei@ivpp.ac.cn)
human fossils, many stone and bone artifacts, ash layers and
a large amount of mammal fossils were uncovered [2,3].
The site was excavated later in 1990 and 1993 by Liaoning
Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and
recently in 2007 by IVPP, Liaoning Provincial Institute of
Cultural Relics and Archaeology, as well as Anshan Mu-
nicipal Museum. Archaeological materials were enriched
with these excavations.
The cave deposits at Xiaogushan Site can be clearly di-
vided into upper and lower two major parts. The upper part
yielding pottery materials is evidently much younger, while
the lower part yielding stone artifacts is evidently older. The
lower part can be subdivided into four layers, and the
mammalian fossils were unearthed mainly from Layer 2, or
the second lowest layer of the deposits [2]. And that Layers
3 and 4 are different from each other just by facies, they
were formed during the same period. The mammalian fos-
sils from the lower part of the deposits were identified into

© Science China Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010 csb.scichina.com www.springerlink.com
 DONG Wei, et al. Chinese Sci Bull
Figure 1 Geographic locations of Xiaogushan and other mammalian
fauna localities. ★ Beijing; ⊕ fauna locality; 1, Xiaogushan; 2, Miaohou-
shan and Shanchengzi; 3, Gulongshan; 4, Yushu; 5, Yanjiagang; 6, Upper
Cave; 7, Lingjing; 8, Dingcun; 9, Salawusu.
38 species in 1985 [2], but the fauna was never studied sys-
tematically. The present authors carried out a systematic
study, from 2007 to 2008, on the fossils housed at Liaoning
Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology,
Liaoning Provincial Museum and Anshan Municipal Mu-
seum. The systematic description of the fossils was pub-
lished in a Chinese monograph on the site [4]. And that the
present paper shows the recent analyses of the fauna from
Layers 1–4, and comparison with other related faunas, as
well as the interpretation of age and paleoenvironment of
Xiaogushan fauna.
1 Composition of Xiaogushan fauna and statis-
tic comparison with other related faunas
The mammalian materials unearthed from the lower part of
the cave deposits at Xiaogushan Site by the systematic ex-
cavations in 1983, 1990, 1993 and 2007 can be classified
into 40 species, 34 genera, 22 families and 7 orders. There
are many Late Pleistocene mammalian faunas in China [5,6],
the Middle and Late Pleistocene mammalian faunas in
Table 1 Statistics of common components between Xiaogushan and compared faunas
Gulongshan Lingjing Dingcun
Total species number of every fauna 50 17 20
Shared species number 18 6 6
Shared species number over total
45.00 15.00 15.00
species number of Xiaogushan (%)
Shared species number over total
36.00 35.29 30.00
species number of every fauna (%)
August (2010) Vol.55 No.24 2705
Liaoning Province are also numerous [7–12]. Nine faunas
with comparable geographic and chronological signifi-
cances are selected for comparisons with the Xiaogushan
fauna: Gulongshan fauna [11] of the late stage of the Late
Pleistocene in Dalian, Liaoning; Miaohoushan fauna [12] of
the late stage of the Middle Pleistocene at Benxi, Liaoning;
Shanchengzi fauna [12] of the Late Pleistocene at Benxi,
Liaoning; Yushu fauna [13] of the late stage of the Late
Pleistocene, Jilin; Yanjiagang fauna [14] of the late stage of
the Late Pleistocene in Harbin, Heilongjiang; Dingcun fauna
[15,16] of the late stage of the Middle Pleistocene at Xiang-
fen, Shanxi; Upper Cave fauna [17] of the late stage of the
Late Pleistocene at Zhoukoudian, Beijing; Linjing fauna
[18,19] of the early stage of the Late Pleistocene at Xuchang,
Henan; and Salawusu fauna [20,21] of the late stage of the
Late Pleistocene in Erdos, Nei Mongol (Figure 1).
The statistics of common species between Xiaogushan
fauna and other related faunas are listed in Table 1. As can
be seen from the table, if based on the number of shared
species between Xiaogushan fauna and compared faunas,
Xiaogushan fauna is the most similar to that of Gulongshan
(18), secondly to that of Shanchengzi (16). The percentage
of the shared species number over total species number of
Xiaogushan fauna shows the same result (see the third row
of Table 1). But the percentage of the shared species num-
ber over total species number of every fauna shows that
Xiaogushan fauna is the closest to that of Shanchengzi
(41.03%), secondly to that of Yanjiagang (36.67%), and
then to that of Gulongshan (36%).
Brainerd-Robinson sequencing method [22] was tried to
test the similarity between Xiaogushan and other related
faunas. With total 117 species from total 10 faunas, every
two faunas were compared for similarity coefficient and all
compared faunas were ranked according to Brainerd-
Robinson’s rule (Table 2). Based on this result, Xiaogushan
fauna is adjacent to Shanchengzi and Yushu faunas, and it is
the most similar to these two faunas.
To sum up, based on comparison of common taxa shared
by Xiaogushan fauna and compared faunas (Table 1), as
well as Brainerd-Robinson ranking result (Table 2),
Xiaogushan fauna is the most similar to Shanchengzi fauna,
secondly to Gulongshan and Yushu faunas. Judging by the
composition of Xiaogushan fauna and comparison with
other related faunas, Xiaogushan fauna is a typical fauna of
Northern Region [5].
Miaohoushan Shanchengzi Salawusu Upper Cave Yanjiagang Yushu
31 39 32 42 30 29
10 16 11 12 11 10
25.00 40.00 27.50 30.00 27.50 25.00
32.26 41.03 34.38 28.57 36.67 34.48
2706 DONG Wei, et al. Chinese Sci Bull August (2010) Vol.55 No.24

Table 2 Ranked faunas according to Brainerd-Robinson’s rule and similarity coefficients

Miaohoushan Lingjing Dingcun Salawusw Yanjiagang Yushu Xiaogushan Shanchengzi Upper Cave Gulongshan
Miaohoushan 234
Lingjing 162 234
Dingcun 156 184 234
Salawusw 140 164 186 234
Yanjiagang 128 160 174 162 234
Yushu 146 178 168 156 188 234
Xiaogushan 152 148 158 154 154 180 234
Shanchengzi 134 142 164 144 156 158 176 234
Upper Cave 108 128 150 142 146 136 134 148 234
Gulongshan 108 124 138 142 146 148 154 136 154 234

2 The age of Xiaogushan fauna
The majority taxa of Xiaogushan fauna are typical of the
Late Pleistocene, such as Vulpes vulpes tschiliensis, Ursus
spelaeus, Mammuthus primigenius, Coelodonta antiquitatis,
Equus przewalskii, Cervus (Sika) hortulorum, Cervus
elaphus, Megaloceros ordosianus, Capreolus manchuricus,
Procapra przewalskii, Naemorhedus goral, etc. The great
similarity between Xiaogushan fauna and the Late Pleisto-
cene faunas of Shanchengzi, Gulongshan and Yushu, as
mentioned in the previous section, indicates its age of the
late Pleistocene.
The extinct taxa (including regional extinction) in Xiaogu-
shan fauna are Cricetulus varianus, Nyctereutes sinensis,
Ursus spelaeus, Crocuta ultima, Acinonyx sp., Mammuthus
primigenius, Dicerorhinus mercki, Coelodonta antiquitatis,
Equus cf. sanmeniensis, Muntiacus cf. szechuanensis,
Megaloceros ordosianus and Bos primigenius, total 12 spe-
cies. It takes 30% of fauna taxa (Table 3). The percentage is
somewhat high for faunas of the Late Pleistocene. Among
these extinct species, Crocuta ultima, Dicerorhinus mercki,
Equus cf. sanmeniensis, Muntiacus cf. szechuanensis and
Bos primigenius, are relatively archaic forms in the Late
Pleistocene. Judging from the proportion of extinct species
and the antiquity of the fauna, the age of Xiaogushan fauna
is relatively old in the Late Pleistocene.
In the other related faunas (Table 3), Miaohoushan fauna
of the late stage of the Middle Pleistocene ranks the highest
extinct proportion (54.84%), followed by Lingjing fauna of
the early stage of the Late Pleistocene (52.94%), higher than
that of Xiaogushan fauna. Dingcun fauna, another fauna of
the late stage of the Middle Pleistocene, has only 30.00% of
extinct species. It appears contradictory to its age. It is
probably due to the fact that the materials from Dingcun are
not ideal, many taxa are identified at generic level only and
that omitted their extinct status. The other related faunas of
the Late Pleistocene all have lower proportion of extinct
species than that of Xiaogushan fauna except only Yushu
Fauna (34.48%). It indicates also that the age of Xiaogushan
fauna is relatively old in the Late Pleistocene.
To sum up, the age of Xiaogushan fauna is very likely
within the middle t stage of the Late Pleistocene, but might
extend to the late stage of the Late Pleistocene, based on
comparisons of composition, percentage of extinct taxa and
antiquity of fauna between Xiaogushan fauna and other re-
lated faunas.
The Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) and ra-
dioisotopic carbon-14 (14C) datings were carried out on cave
deposits of Xiaogushan Site by Dr. Zhang Jiafu of Peking
University in 2007. The results show that Layer 1 of
Xiaogushan was dated as 80 ka, the bottom of Layer 2 as
~56 ka and the top of Layer 2 as ~30 ka, and Layer 3 as
20–30 ka [23]. It means that the dated absolute age of Lay-
ers 1–3 ranges from 80 ka to 20 ka. It is in accordance with
the results of fauna analyses.
3 The environment of Xiaogushan fauna
Xiaogushan fauna is composed of 1 chiropter, 5 rodents, 1

Table 3 Statistics of extinct species number of Xiaogushan and other related faunas

Extinct species Xiaogushan Gulongshan Lingjing Dingcun Miaohoushan Shanchengzi Salawusw Upper Cave Yanjiagang Yushu
Primates 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
Insectivora 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
Chiroptera 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Rodentia 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0
Lagomorpha 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
Carnivora 5 3 1 0 7 3 1 3 1 1
Proboscidea 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 2 2
Perissodactyla 3 1 2 1 2 0 1 0 2 3
Artiodactyla 2 4 5 4 3 4 4 0 3 4
Total 12 9 9 6 17 7 7 3 8 10
Percentage (%) 30.00 18.00 52.94 30.00 54.84 17.95 21.88 7.14 26.67 34.48
 DONG Wei, et al. Chinese Sci Bull
lagomorph, 15 carnivores, 1 proboscidean, 4 perissodactyls
and 13 artiodactyls. In view of diet, the chiropter is insecti-
vore, 1 predator; 15 carnivores are predators, among which
the bears are also omnivorous; 5 rodents are herbivorous
and occasionally omnivorous; the lagomorph, proboscidean
and 4 perissodactyls are all herbivorous; and the suid of
artiodactyls is omnivorous, and the rest 12 artiodactyls are
all herbivorous. Among the herbivores, mammoth and rhi-
nos are both browsers and grazers; cervids are browsers;
equids and bovids are grazers; and rodents are mostly graz-
ers or granivores. The diet composition of Xiaogushan
fauna consists of 15 predator species, 8 omnivorous species,
3 species of browser-grazer, 6 browser species and 8 grazer
species. It is remarkable that small to medium sized carni-
vores are much more numerous than large sized ones; and
medium to large sized herbivores are much more numerous
than the small sized ones. It is in accordance with the pyra-
mid structure of food chain.
By virtue of the fact that most mammals of the late
Pleistocene survived to present, the habitat preferences of
the extant forms [24,25] can be served for the environment
interpretation of their Pleistocene ancestors. Figure 2 illus-
trates statistics of habitat or environment preferences of
Xiaogushan fauna. For temperature preferences, Ochotona,
Ursus spelaeus, Ursus arctos, Mammuthus primigenius and
Coelodonta antiquitatis of Xiaogushan fauna are frequently
seen in cold areas; while the other 35 species of Xiaogushan
fauna are mostly seen in temperate zones. It indicates that
Xiaogushan fauna existed in a temperate climate, but the
temperature was somewhat lower than that of today. Con-
sidering that the age of the fauna ranges from the middle to
late stages of the Late Pleistocene, the fauna must have ex-
perienced cold period MIS4. It is also the last cold period of
the three existing in Northeast China in the Pleistocene [26].
Mammuthus primigenius migrated into Xiaogushan from
Siberia during this glaciation. The above-mentioned other 4
cold forms also proved the existence of the cold period. But
the drop in temperature was not so severe that the glaciation
vestige only preserved in high mountains, for example in
the Changbai Mountains in Northeast China [27], and
Xiaogushan fauna was still dominated by temperate forms.
For humidity preferences, 9 species of Xiaogushan fauna
Figure 2 Statistics of environmental preferences of Xiaogushan fauna.
August (2010) Vol.55 No.24 2707
prefer arid environment, 15 species prefer humid environ-
ment, and the rest are eurytopic. Such combination implies
that the fauna environment during that period was generally
humid, especially in closed lowlands; but partly arid in open
highlands. The climate of that period was favorable for the
formation of such an environment. For biome preferences,
23 species prefer grassland, 23 species prefer jungles, 18
species prefer forest, 12 species prefer hilly land, 3 species
prefer water area (there are some overlaps in biome prefer-
ences for some species). To meet the biome preferences of
Xiaogushan fauna, there should be some large grassland,
large forest, some water areas, and large boscage.
To conclude, the fauna’s environment was generally hu-
mid, especially in closed lowland, with large forest, some
water areas and swamps; it was dry only in open highland,
with large grassland; and in between, large jungles. It is
suitable for human habitation during temperate seasons with
considerable food and water resources. The cold period
MIS4 might push prehistoric human southward to temperate
area or stimulate them to develop controlled fire using tech-
niques to adapt the cold environment, and the latter hy-
pothesis can be served to interpret the ash sediments in the
lower part of Xiaogushan cave deposits.
This work was supported by the Knowledge Innovation Program of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX2-YW-106) and the National Basic
Research Program of China (2006CB806400).
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