A skull unearthed in China challenges the timeline of human evolution, scientists say

CNN ^ | September 25, 2025 | Katie Hunt

[Twotone]

A badly crushed cranium unearthed decades ago from a riverbank in central China that once defied classification is now shaking up the human family tree, according to a new analysis.

Scientists digitally reconstructed the squashed skull, thought to be 1 million years old, and its features suggest that the fossil belonged to the same lineage as a striking specimen called “Dragon Man” and the Denisovans — an enigmatic and recently discovered population of prehistoric humans with murky origins. The skull’s age and categorization as an early Denisovan ancestor would mean the group originated much earlier than thought.

The researchers’ wider analysis, based on the reconstruction and more than 100 other skull fossils, has also sketched a radically different picture of human evolution, they reported Thursday in the journal Science. The results significantly shift the timeline for species such as our own, Homo sapiens, and Homo neanderthalensis. Neanderthals, archaic humans who lived in Europe and Central Asia before disappearing around 40,000 years ago, are known to have lived alongside the Denisovans and interbred with them.

[ifinnegan]

Ah.

It’s probably made up.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Twotone. Adding to the list, but not pinging.

[minnesota_bound]

Alien skull.