Discovery in China SUger the separation of human ancestors 400 thousand years ahead of expected and It may indicate that human evolution originated in Asia, not in Africa.
A digital reenactment of a skull over a million years suggests that humans may have separated from their ancestors 400,000 years earlier than they were thought, and in Asia, not in Africa.
This crushed skull, discovered in China in 1990 and nicknamed Yunxian 2, was previously regarded as belonging to Homo Erectus, an ancestor of the human species.
But thanks to modern reconstruction technologies, a group of researchers discovered characteristics in the skull – as a presumably larger brain – than bind it to species like Homo Longi or Homo sapienswhich once believed to have existed only later in human evolution.
“This changes a lot”, underlined Chris Stringer, an anthropologist at the London Natural History Museum and a member of the research team whose reported the agency France-Presse (AFP).
“This suggests that a million years ago, our ancestors had already divided into different groups, indicating a much older and more complex human evolutionary division than previously thought,” he explained.
If these discoveries are confirmed, this would mean that There may have been much earlier elements of other primitive hominids, such as neanderthals or homo sapiens.
Also “cloudy the waters” regarding the old hypotheses that the early humans dispersed from Africa, highlighted AFP Michael Petraglia, director of the Australian Center for Human Evolution at Griffith University, which was not involved in the study.
“A major change may be occurring, with the east Asia now playing a fundamental role in the evolution of hominids,” he said.
The study used advanced computed tomography, structured light images and virtual reconstruction techniques to model a complete Yunxian 2.
Scientists used another similar skull to create their model, which later compared to more than 100 other specimens.
“Yunxian 2 can help us solve” the great confusion around a “confusing set of human fossils dated 1 million to 300,000 years ago,” Stringer detailed in a press release.
A series of recent studies have revolutionized knowledge about human origins, such as Homo Longi, recognized as a new species and relative close to humans in 2021.
“Fossils like Yunxian 2 show how much we still have to learn about our origins,” Stringer noted.
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