At https://dailygalaxy.com/2025/11/scientists-1m-year-old-skull-prove-three-different-species-shared-earth-800000-years/… a skull found in a river terrace in central China yielded up a surprise. It was found in a crushed condition – in bits and bits. It was presumed it was a Homo erectus specimen. Chinese scientists, undeterred, have brought it back to life with high resolution scans – and 3D reconstruction techniques have put the skull back together again. It seems it may be related, vaguely, to the mysterious Denisovans – and therefore is closely related to Homo sapiens. Yet, the skull is said to be one million years old.
The skull was digitally uncrushed – revealing a mixture of traits. The cranium lacks the backward slope of Homo erectus and the occipotal bun seen in Neanderthals. Its brain volume is intermediate. Larger than Homo erectus but smaller than Neanderthals – as well as modern humans. The closest matches of the skull seem to be to the longi clade. These include the Denisovans, we are told. Chinese scientists are suggesting the skull is an early form of longi clade – indicating an earlier split between Homo sapiens and its evolutionary cousins. Somewhat earlier than previously envisaged. Were there actually three lineages – living at the same time. Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, and Denisovans, an ancestry going back a million years. Did East Asia have a greater diversity of early humans than the fossil record of Africa, for example. The Chinese have never accepted they derived from a relatively recent migration Out of Africa, and adher to the idea the roots go back much deeper. They probably do.