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According to a Live Science report, hafted stone tools dated to as early as 160,000 years ago have been discovered in central China. More than 2,600 stone tools were uncovered at the site of Xigou, and some of them appear to have been attached to a handle or shaft, making them the oldest known composite tools in eastern Asia. Michael Petraglia of Griffith University explained that the use of a handle improved tool performance by allowing the user to increase leverage, and by providing more force for actions such as boring holes. These tools are thought to have been used...

The discovery of a huge fossilised skull that was wrapped up and hidden in a Chinese well nearly 90 years ago has forced scientists to rewrite the story of human evolution. Analysis of the remains has revealed a new branch of the human family tree that points to a previously unknown sister group more closely related to modern humans than the Neanderthals. The extraordinary fossil has been named a new human species, Homo longi or “Dragon man”, by Chinese researchers, although other experts are more cautious about the designation. “I think this is one of the most important finds of...

The fossil may represent a new Homo species that lived more than 146,000 years ago =================================================================================== A fossil skull nicknamed “Dragon Man” has surfaced in China under mysterious circumstances, with big news for Neandertals. Dragon Man belonged to a previously unrecognized Stone Age species that replaces Neandertals as the closest known relatives of people today, researchers say. A nearly complete male skull now housed in the Geoscience Museum of Hebei GEO University in Shijiazhuang, China, represents a species dubbed Homo longi by Hebei GEO paleoanthropologist Xijun Ni and his colleagues. The scientists describe the skull, which dates to at least...