Million-year-old skull discovery prompts new human evolution theories

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Scientists are rethinking the story of human evolution after discovering a digitally rebuilt skull in China. The find challenges previously accepted ideas about when different human ancestors lived.

The Yunxian 2 fossil, first discovered in Hubei Province in 1990, has recently been digitally reconstructed and accurately dated to between 940,000 and 1.1 million years ago. Published in the journal Science, the findings indicate this fossil may belong to a previously unknown group within the human evolutionary story, distinct from Homo erectus.

Million-year-old skull could be Homo longi

So, they did a really detailed digital rebuild of this old skull from 2025, and it turns out the face wasn’t quite like any other human species we knew from that time. For years, everyone thought it was a *Homo erectus*, but after this reconstruction, the scientists are pretty sure it’s actually closer to a *Homo longi* – you might know them as Denisovans. It’s a pretty big deal, actually!

A newly reconstructed digital model of the Yunxian 2 skull, a nearly one-million-year-old fossil from China, reveals it likely belonged to a group called Homo longi, an ancient human lineage native to Asia. The reconstruction fixed inaccuracies present in the original fossil, providing a clearer picture of its features. More details are available in a Science article.

— Science Magazine (@ScienceMagazine) September 26, 2025

In 2021, scientists suggested a newly discovered fossil skull from north-eastern China represented a previously unknown human species, nicknamed “Dragon Man.” The skull, estimated to be over 146,000 years old, had a unique combination of both ancient and modern human characteristics.

This finding might mean key moments in evolution happened much earlier than scientists thought. Unfortunately, because the skull lacked DNA, experts are still debating exactly what species it belonged to.

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2025-09-28 14:18