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'Absolute surprise': Homo erectus skulls found in China are almost 1.8 million years old -- the oldest evidence of the ancient human relatives in East Asia
Live Science ^ | February 18, 2026 | Sophie Berdugo

Posted on 02/24/2026 5:30:13 AM PST by SunkenCiv

This revelation has made the Yunxian skulls from Hubei province the oldest evidence of our early human relatives, known as hominins, in East Asia, according to research published Wednesday (Feb. 18) in the journal Science Advances...

H. erectus has long been considered the first human relative to leave Africa, with 1.78 million to 1.85 million-year-old fossils found at the Dmanisi site in Georgia being the earliest evidence of humans in Asia. But stone tools discovered at two sites in China dated to 2.1 million and 2.43 million years ago have complicated that picture, since they predate experts' theory of when H. erectus originated.

The exact date of the three Yunxian skulls, which were found between 1989 and 2022, has long been debated, but they were previously considered to be around 1 million years old based on the age of animal teeth found close by, although one study dated them to around 1.1 million years ago using electron spin resonance and uranium-series dating. So when the opportunity arose to try a new dating technique at the site, Bae and his colleagues thought it was a good chance to revisit the debate.

Their team used a technique called cosmogenic nuclide burial dating to determine the age of the quartz found in the sediment layers where the skulls were found. This dating technique measures the half-life of two chemical variants -- Aluminum-26 and Beryllium-10 -- to determine how much time has passed since the quartz was exposed to cosmic rays.

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: aluminum26; anthropology; asia; beryllium10; china; fauxiantroll; fauxiantrolls; godsgravesglyphs; homoerectus; hubeiprovince; yunxianskulls

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The reconstruction of the two original Yunxian Homo erectus fossils, discovered in 1989 and 1990. There is currently no reconstruction of the third Yunxian skull.
Photo Credit: Xiaobo Feng and Hua Tu
Photo Credit: Xiaobo Feng and Hua Tu

1 posted on 02/24/2026 5:30:13 AM PST by SunkenCiv
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...

2 posted on 02/24/2026 5:31:14 AM PST by SunkenCiv (TDS -- it's not just for DNC shills anymore -- oh, wait, yeah it is.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Wow... looks like the fricken’ RAT basstids have been around forever....LOL


3 posted on 02/24/2026 5:34:50 AM PST by lgjhn23 ("On the 8th day, Satan created the progressive liberal to destroy all the good that God created...")
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To: SunkenCiv
"What this means is that we need to consider pushing the origin of Homo erectus back" to around 2.6 million years ago, Bae said in an email.

They're not going to take this lying down.

4 posted on 02/24/2026 5:36:15 AM PST by Ezekiel (🆘️ "Come fly with US". 🔴 Ingenuity -- because the Son of David begins with MARS ♂️, aka every man)
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To: Ezekiel; All
It's a total broadside for the 'Out of Africa" nonsense, at least!
5 posted on 02/24/2026 6:02:26 AM PST by SMARTY (In politics, stupidity is not a handicap. Napoleon Bonaparte I)
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To: SunkenCiv

It all goes back to what the Bible says, and doesn’t say. When God said “Let us create man in our image”, He did NOT say, “let us create a creature, call it man, and make it...”. So it seems likely that whatever “man” was at that point in time was already a given. So man as we know of him, made in the image of God, is apparently considerably different than the “man” that God was speaking of when He said that. Anything prior to Adam that may have been called “man” is only “related” to us in the sense that there was an animal before us called “man”. May have been a hunter, may have developed tools and used them, but still, just an animal.


6 posted on 02/24/2026 6:22:11 AM PST by Democrat = party of treason
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To: Democrat = party of treason
These finds were made in China. Despite rather ignorant efforts here and there, the Bible doesn't even exhibit knowledge of the existence of China. Take your trolling to the Religion forum, where it belongs.

7 posted on 02/24/2026 6:28:19 AM PST by SunkenCiv (TDS -- it's not just for DNC shills anymore -- oh, wait, yeah it is.)
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To: SunkenCiv

I don’t think so...


8 posted on 02/24/2026 6:48:41 AM PST by Jim W N (MAGA by restoring the Gospel of the Grace of Christ (Jude 3) and our Free Constitutional Republic!)
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To: SunkenCiv

Handsome dude, ain’t he?


9 posted on 02/24/2026 7:07:16 AM PST by Eli Kopter (Wherever you are, that is where you are supposed to be...)
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To: Democrat = party of treason

God created time and reckoned it for His own purposes. Who are we to know the Mind of God?


10 posted on 02/24/2026 7:09:05 AM PST by Eli Kopter (Wherever you are, that is where you are supposed to be...)
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To: SunkenCiv

How is it “known” they are 1.8 million years old?


11 posted on 02/24/2026 7:20:36 AM PST by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Science has never been able to explain how these early humans were able to go from Africa to eastern Asia when there’s so much in between that’s inhospitable.


12 posted on 02/24/2026 7:29:41 AM PST by Kleon
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I believe them....


13 posted on 02/24/2026 8:38:56 AM PST by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZG2M)
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To: Eli Kopter

Mustache and a dimple in the chin. Bet the reconstructionist was a Kirk Douglas fan.


14 posted on 02/24/2026 8:46:50 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: SunkenCiv

I bet they were really good at math.


15 posted on 02/24/2026 8:50:06 AM PST by Jim Noble (Assez de mensonges et des phrases)
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To: SunkenCiv

16 posted on 02/24/2026 8:52:07 AM PST by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic... )
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To: Sacajaweau

Ha!


17 posted on 02/24/2026 9:34:21 AM PST by Eli Kopter (Wherever you are, that is where you are supposed to be...)
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To: SunkenCiv

Looks like Aboriginal Australians.


18 posted on 02/24/2026 12:38:32 PM PST by Bikkuri ('China and India were ever going to be serious allies hasn’t been paying attention)
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To: SunkenCiv

You are a moron.


19 posted on 02/24/2026 5:43:35 PM PST by Democrat = party of treason
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