The Jinniushan cranium found in 1985 by a student excavation team from Peking University under the direction of Prof. Lu Zun'e, is one of the more recent fossil human specimens discovered in China. The cranium was directly associated with a partial skeleton, including a complete pelvis, portions of the spinal column, and nearly complete hand and foot bones. The remains were recovered from a collapsed limestone cave in Yingkou county, Liaoning. The human bearing deposits have been dated to approximately 250-280,000 years ago. The Jinniushan cranium shows certain derived features that ally it to early forms of H. sapiens. These traits include a cranial capacity within the range of modern people, thin vault bones, an expansion of the parietal region, a more gracile cranial base and a more rounded occipital bone, posteriorly. In other respects it shares features with H. erectus such as projecting brow ridges, low cranial height and an elongate, strongly buttressed cranial vault.

In this oblique view many of the salient features of the Jinniushan cranium discussed above can be clearly seen. This cranium, as well as those from Dali and Maba to be discussed below display derived traits generally associated with H. sapiens yet are definitely more archaic looking than early modern humans. They may best be characterized as pre-modern forms of H. sapiens. Such "pre-modern" human specimens have only recently come to light in China. The presense of these transitional forms in China during the Late Middle through Early Late Pleistocene has been used to support the argument for local evolutionary continuity in China between H. erectus and modern humans.

The Dali specimen from Shaanxi, is dated to approximately 180,000 YA. It is similar in many ways to Jinniushan and represents a pre-modern form of H. sapiens. Its cranial capacity is intermediate between earlier forms of H. erectus and later more modern forms of H. sapiens, although it overlaps the range of variation seen in both. Dali is also intermediate in its morphological character, retaining many features associated with Asian H. erectus while evincing a number of derived features associated with modern humans such as expansion of the parietals and transformation in cranial base anatomy.

In this oblique view the long, low contour of the Dali cranial vault is readily apparent. The upper jaw has been fractured and dislocated upwards giving the cranium the appearance of having a very short face. Actually the face would be very similar in overall dimensions to the Jinniushan cranium upon reconstruction. The Dali cranium has extremely robust brow ridges. They do not, however, assume the straight bar-like character of the brow seen at Zhoukoudian and are more similar structurally to the brow seen in archaic humans from Europe and Africa. Dali is dated to a time when Neandertals were spread throughout much of Europe. The facial anatomy of Dali is very different from that seen in Neandertals and is much more similar to that seen in later, more modern looking humans not only in China but northern and eastern Africa as well.

This lateral view of Dali shows the rounding of the posterior contour of the skull, differing in this respect from the "pinched" look seen in H. erectus. The base of the Dali cranium is much more modern looking than that of H. erectus. The tympanic plate is thin and foreshortened, much as in modern humans and quite distinct from the tubular form seen in H. erectus.

The Maba cranium, dated to approximately 120,000 years ago was discovered in 1958 in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. It was the first substantial specimen of a pre-modern form of H. sapiens found in East Asia. It was iniatially thought to be an Asian Neandertal but does not in fact show any of the derived features of Neandertals as known from Europe and the Near East. The Maba skull is similar to other more complete finds of pre-modern H. sapiens subsequantly found in China, differing only in minor ways, such as the size and shape of the orbits and nasal bones. Maba is also somewhat reminiscent of the recently discovered Narmada skull from India.