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Digital Reconstruction of Million-Year-Old Chinese Skull Proposes Earlier Human Lineage Split

Critics urge genetic confirmation of a Science study that places Yunxian 2 in a Homo longi–Denisovan lineage with divergences beyond one million years.

This artist's impression shows the head of an adult male individual who lived roughly 1 million years ago in China's Hubei Province, based on the digital reconstruction of a fossilized archaic human skull, called Yunxian 2 in this image released on September 25, 2025. Jiannan Bai and Xijun Ni/Handout via REUTERS
Image
Million-Year-Old Skull Pushes Back Homo Sapiens' Origins By 400,000 Years
This artist's impression shows a group of archaic humans hunting in a forest roughly 1 million years ago in China's Hubei Province. The head of the adult male individual holding a wooden spear in the foreground is based on the digital reconstruction of a fossilized archaic skull, called Yunxian 2, unearthed in 1990, in this image released on September 25, 2025. Jiannan Bai and Xijun Ni/Handout via REUTERS

Overview

  • The team used CT imaging and virtual restoration to rebuild the crushed Yunxian 2 cranium from Hubei, dated to roughly 940,000–1.1 million years ago.
  • Morphology-based analyses place Yunxian 2 in the Homo longi clade that includes Denisovans, distinct from Homo erectus despite some shared traits.
  • The study estimates Neanderthals diverged around 1.38 million years ago, the H. longi lineage around 1.2 million years ago, and the Homo sapiens lineage around 1.02 million years ago.
  • The results imply Denisovans may be closer to modern humans than Neanderthals, a relationship many geneticists dispute based on DNA-based models.
  • Researchers highlight next steps including analysis of a third, better-preserved Yunxian skull found in 2022 and attempts to obtain biomolecular data to test the proposed timeline.