Squashed skulls found in China belong to first known East Asians: Revised dating of enigmatic Yunxian skulls pushes their age back 800,000 years, challenges idea of Denisovan ancestry.

The article discusses a recent study that redates skulls found at the Yunxian site in central China to approximately 1.77 million years old, making them the oldest hominin fossils discovered in eastern Asia. This new dating challenges previous assumptions that the skulls belonged to the species Homo erectus, suggesting instead a possible connection to a later group known as H. longi, which includes Denisovans. The findings have sparked renewed debate among paleoanthropologists regarding the skulls' identity, with some experts advocating for their classification as H. erectus based on anatomical features, while others call for further research to clarify their origins. The ongoing discussion highlights the complexities of human ancestry and the implications of these findings for our understanding of early human evolution. [Extracted from the article]