A Crushed Cranium From One Million Years Ago Could Transform Our Timeline of Human Origins

In 1990, researchers released a damaged skull from sediment layers in central China. The skull was difficult to identify due to the distortion, but was assigned to the first human line Homo erectusBased on the age of the surrounding strata.

A new analysis in Science challenges, however, that the classification showing that the specimen of approximately one million years belonged Homo LongiA sister species of Homo sapiens This was linked to Denisovans, who once occupied Asia while Neanderthals lived in Europe.

The new analysis, which involved the reconstruction of the skull, suggests that the species is much older than what was thought traditional. In fact, the results could transform the origins not only to Homo Longibut Homo sapiens And Homo neanderthalensisAlso, suggesting that the three divergent lines there are not hundreds of thousands of years, but millions.

Find out more: Who were Denisovans?

Rebuild a broken skull

The skull was not the first to be in Yunxian, a region of the city of Shiyan, in central China. Instead, it was the second, according to a skull found in 1989. The two specimens were traced about a million years ago – around 1.10 to 0.94 million, to be specific – and showed a meli -meloo of primitive and modern characteristics, similar to those observed in H. erectus And H. Sapiens. But, because these skulls have been damaged in their time in the ground, their attribution to H. erectus remained temporary.

To find out more about their identity, the authors of the new analysis turned to Tomodensitometry to scan, separate and digitally reconstruct the distorted sections of the skull less unfortunate H. erectus Or H. SapiensBut at a first branch of H. LONGI – A line identified from a skull from Harbin, in China, in 2021, and linked to Denisovans in 2025.

If the new classification of Yunxian 2 is correct, the age of the fossil could repel the divergence of H. Longi,, H. SapiensAnd H. Neanderthalensis by hundreds of thousands of years. Although we traditionally think that these species occurred about 700,000 to 500,000 years ago, researchers say rather that H. Longi And H. Sapiens could have separated from their common common ancestor about 1.32 million years ago, while H. Neanderthalensis Could have been separated before that, up to 1.38 million years ago.

Find out more: Dragon Man Skull, 146,000 years old, confirmed as Denisovan via dental DNA

Human species have separated

In addition to their large brains and their lower and longer fronts, H. Longi The individuals also had a prominent front and a pronounced depression between the bones of the eyebrows, both apparent in the Harbin skull – a subsequent specimen, about 146,000 years ago.

That these features are also apparent in the Yunxian 2 rebuilt skull suggests that they emerged early after the separation of H. Longi and H. SapiensPointing towards a sudden diversification period shortly after their separation.

Although the results of the study are still trembling, the analysis opens the door to future reconstructions of distorted fossils, whose deformation has historically obscured our image of the past, hiding essential evidence of the early evolution of humans.

“It is now well known that there were at one point Homo Lines, “wrote Sacha Vignieri, the editor -in -chief of the analysis, in his editorial summary.” Understanding the differences between these lines depends largely on Crania which are rare and often damaged and distorted by age. »»

The approach therefore means that damaged may not remain damaged forever, giving us a new overview of the faces and history of past humans.

Find out more: Dragon Man Skull, 146,000 years old, confirmed as Denisovan via dental DNA

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