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ChinaScience

Million-year-old skull found in China fills human evolutionary gap

  • The latest discovery is the most complete fossil of its kind to be found in mainland Eurasia
  • Archaeologists say the find completes a missing gap on the origin of Homo erectus in East Asia

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Archaeologists expect to finish excavating the ancient human skull in November, at the same site in Yun county, Hubei province in central China where the remains of two other million-year-old humans were found decades ago. Photo: CCTV
Echo Xie
Chinese archaeologists have discovered an almost complete human skull from 1 million years ago in the central province of Hubei, providing an important insight into a key moment in evolutionary history.

The find, in Yun county, is the most complete human skull of that age ever seen in mainland Eurasia, the official Hubei Daily said on Wednesday.

The fossil provides an important basis for exploring the evolution pattern of archaic humans and the origin of Homo erectus in East Asia, it said.

The skull was found at the same site where two other skulls of the same age were unearthed more than 30 years ago.

But, unlike the previous finds, which were distorted during the fossilisation process, the latest discovery is near complete with no visible distortion.

So far, the frontal bone, orbit and other parts of the head have been unearthed, with the rest of the fossil expected to be excavated before November.

Archaeologists expect the discovery to provide more accurate information on the human face and skull at that time, with clearer anatomical features visible, as well as significant scientific information on brain volume, evolutionary stages and regional population characteristics, the report said.

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