A Late Pleistocene archaic human tooth from Gua Dagang (Trader’s Cave), Niah national park, Sarawak (Malaysia)

A Late Pleistocene hominin tooth discovered in Trader's Cave, Niah National Park, Sarawak (Malaysia), provides evidence of an archaic human population inhabiting northern Borneo around 52-55 thousand years ago. The tooth, dated using Optically Stimulated Luminescence, exhibits morphological traits characteristic of archaic Homo species such as H. erectus and H. neanderthalensis, rather than modern H. sapiens. These features include a massive crown with pronounced labial convexity, shovelling, and unique enamel wrinking patterns. The discovery suggests that an archaic hominin population coexisted in the region during or just before the arrival of H. sapiens, contributing to our understanding of human evolutionary history in Insular Southeast Asia (ISEA).

Curnoe, D., Sauffi, M. S., Goh, H. M., Sun, X.-f., & Peiris, R. (2025). A Late Pleistocene archaic human tooth from Gua Dagang (Trader’s Cave), Niah national park, Sarawak (Malaysia). PLOS One, 20(12), e0338786. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0338786