Early Pleistocene large-mammal fauna associated with Gigantopithecus at Mohui Cave, Bubing Basin, South China

The Mohui fauna, associated with Gigantopithecus blacki, has been recovered from the Pleistocene karst cave deposit in Bubing Basin, Guangxi, South China. The large-mammalian assemblage derives from 28 species, 15 of which have no historic descendants. Occurrence of some ancient species implies that this fauna is early Early Pleistocene, such as Hystrix magna, Sinomastodon yangziensis, Stegodon huananensis, Ailuropoda microta, Pachycrocuta licenti, Tapirus sanyuanensis, Hespertherium sp., and Dorcabune liuchengense. Comparisons to already-dated early Pleistocene faunas in South China, combined with preliminary paleomagnetic, electron spin resonance (ESR) and U-series analysis of this cave, indicate mammalian fauna age around 1.7 Ma. Comparisons to five faunal assemblages in the same basin show species-level differences in Ailuropoda, Stegodon, Hystrix, Tapirus, and Sus, implying the large-mammal fauna has passed through a slow process of evolution during the Quaternary in East Asia.