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3d ago

Rebuilt Million-Year-Old Skull Places Yunxian Fossil in Denisovan-Related Lineage, Recasting Human Split Timing

A Science study’s digital reconstruction argues major Homo clade divergences began more than a million years ago, a conclusion outside experts say needs independent molecular confirmation.

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
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
an ancient human-like skull that has been partly squashed
Image

Overview

  • The Yunxian 2 skull, dated to roughly 940,000–1.1 million years ago, was reconstructed with high‑resolution CT and structure‑light scans and compared with more than 100 fossils.
  • The team reassigns the cranium from Homo erectus to the Asian Homo longi/Denisovan‑related clade based on a larger braincase and distinctive facial and ear‑region traits.
  • The analysis proposes five major large‑brained Homo branches—Asian erectus, heidelbergensis, sapiens, Neanderthals and Homo longi/Denisovans—diverging more than a million years ago.
  • The findings imply the lineage leading to Homo sapiens split hundreds of thousands of years earlier than many genetic models suggest, pushing diagnostic sapiens traits past the million‑year mark.
  • Ancient DNA could not be recovered and protein tests were uninformative, and independent specialists caution that the earlier timeline and any hints of non‑African origins are provisional and require corroboration.