Abstract: To examine the variation of upper-facial flatness, the data on nasomalar angle of fossil, neolithic and modern crania from North and South China a re presented and analyzed in this paper. The results show that the antiquity of Mongoloid upper-facial flatness goes back to the age of Homo erectus, and the considerable upper-facial flatness can be regarded as a plesiomorphic character.
A geographical difference can be seen in the neolithic cranial series: the average size of nasomalar angle in North China is slightly larger than that in South China. However, this difference is reduced in the modern cranial series.
Compared with the data listed in this paper, the nasomalar angles of crania from the Upper Cave in Zhoukoudian are too small to be as a character of regional continuity, and an influence of gene flow is suggested.

Key words: Facial flatness, Mongoloid, Human crania from Upper Cave