What a one million-year-old skull could reveal about human evolution

A fossilized human skull, which has been revealed in China and dated about a million years ago, can radically change what we know about the origins of our species.

Researchers say that the analysis has shown that Homo Sapiens might have emerged at least half a million years ago than before.

The skull, known as Yunxian 2, was discovered in the state of Hubei tens of years ago, but for a long time it was assumed to belong to Homo Erectus, the first great -brained human ancestor.

One million years old was accepted as very old to represent something close to modern people. However, new computer modeling and genetic analysis tell a different story.

Professor Xijun of Fudan University, led by the study, said that the findings seem to be too surprising to be real at the beginning.

“From the very beginning, when we got the result, we thought it was incredible. How can this be so deep in the past?” HE Told to BBC. “But we’ve tested it over and over again to test all the models, to use all the methods, and now we’re sure of the result and we’re actually very excited.”

Analysis published in the journal Science And to include scientists from the Natural History History Museum in London now point to the skull of the Homo League, a brother of both Neanderthals and modern people.

This means that the early forms of Homo Sapiens were present a million years ago, as widely believed, 300,000 years ago.

In addition, Professor Chris Stringer of the Nature History Museum, a joint leader in the study, said the results were important. He said Homo Sapiens would have a million -year -old fossils in some places we haven’t found on our planet yet.

If it is true, the findings will significantly extend the period in which people and cousins ​​share the planet. Instead of overlapping for a few hundred thousand years, three types of-homo sapiens may have been found together up to Neanderthal and Homo Long-800,000 years.

The discovery can also solve what scientists call it “mixed in the middle :: 800,000 to 100,000 years ago, the confusing fossil series, which is difficult to classify.

According to Prof, the rethinking of the timeline allows most of the ruins to be grouped as primitive forms or sub -groups of three main branches of humanity.

“Human evolution is like a tree,” he said. “This tree contained several branches and there were three mainly associated mainly branches and they could have a little mustache to each other, and they have been together for almost 1 million years. This is an incredible result.”

However, not all experts were convinced. Dr. Aylwyn Scalyly, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Cambridge, welcomed the work, but warned over extreme trust.

“The person needs to be particularly uncertain about the timing forecasts, because regardless of what evidence you are looking at, it is very difficult to be this genetic or fossil evidence,” he said.