In the past decades numerous late Miocene hominoid fossils have been discovered in Eurasia but the relationships among them and to the later hominids are still in debate. Yunnan Province of China is one of the key places of hominoid fossil discoveries. Till now, four sites have yielded Miocene hominoid fossils. Among them, Lufeng and Yuanmou rank with Siwalik as the richest fossil sites in Eurasia. Here, we report the results of a dietary analysis of the Yuanmou hominoid. Our analyses of tooth size proportions. M₂ shearing crest development, tooth enamel thickness and body weight of Yuanmou and other Miocene hominoids indicate that, compared with other samples, the Yuanmou hominoid had relatively bigger front teeth and weakly developed molar shearing crests (lower SQ). So, the Yuanmou hominoid is considered to have mainly fed on a harder or frugivorous diet. Among the other Miocene hominoids considered in present study, the SQs of Proconsul nyanzae, Ouranopithecus macedoniensis, Dendropithecus macinnesis and Lufengpithecus lufengensis is close to that of Yuanmou indicating that they had similarly developed molar shearing crests with a likely preference for hard fruits. On the other hand, there are some differences between the Yuanmou hominoid and Lufengpithecus in all the four aspects of evidence studied here. Among them, Lufengpithecus had relatively smaller front teeth, relatively smaller M¹, higher SQ, indicating that more folivorous and soft dietary items like leaves and berries were consumed. The preferred paleoenvironments of the Yuanmou hominoid and Lufengpithecus might also have been different.

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In May of 1993, a new well-preserved hominid skull was recovered from the Bapang (Kabuh) Formation of the Sangiran region, Central Jawa. In this paper, we provisionally describe the skull and compare it with Homo erectus crania from Jawa and China. The new skull possesses a series of characteristic features of Asian H. erectus in overall size and shape of the vault, the expression of various ectocranial structures, and other details. Among three geographical and chronological subgroups of Asian H. erectus, the new skull shows affinities with the Jawanese Early Pleistocene subgroup (specimens from the Sangiran and Trinil regions), as expected from its provenance.

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Serological survey for the infection of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and human T-lymphotropic virus-1 (HTLV-1) among isolated ethnic groups in Nepal was done. Altogether 262 plasmas collected from the Raute in West Nepal, Chepang in Middle Nepal and Munda in East Nepal were tested. Plasmas were tested for the presence of HBV surface antigen (HBVs), antibodies to HBVs, HCV, HIV and HTLV-1 by the use of particle agglutination tests. Antibodies to HCV and HTLV-1 were totally negative among the three ethnic groups tested. One individual of the Raute was seropositive for HIV-1 antibodies. HBV infection was identified in the Raute (30%) and Munda (5%) but not in the Chepang. It was shown that emerging virus infections such as HIV and HCV in the remote populations are still negligible, however, nationwide preventive measures including screening test, vaccination scheme and education against these virus dissemination in Nepal are indispensable.

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The Department of Anatomy (1), Jikei University School of Medicine, had been accumulating somatometric data from the somatometrics practical classes for 14 years from 1980 to 1993. One-thousand and ninety-three university male students (third year) who were born from 1955 to 1973 were examined. We present the data as basic statistical measurements.

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