{"id":1011,"date":"2023-10-24T03:59:06","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T19:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/2023\/10\/24\/ancient-skull-from-china-may-rewrite-the-origins-of-our-species\/"},"modified":"2023-10-24T03:59:06","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T19:59:06","slug":"ancient-skull-from-china-may-rewrite-the-origins-of-our-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/ancient-skull-from-china-may-rewrite-the-origins-of-our-species\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancient skull from China may rewrite the origins of our species"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>The origins of our species might need a rethink. An analysis of an ancient skull from China suggests it is eerily similar to the earliest known fossils of our species \u2013found in Morocco, some 10,000 kilometres to the west. The skull hints that modern human<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The origins of our species might&nbsp;need a rethink. An analysis of an ancient&nbsp;skull from China suggests it is eerily similar&nbsp;to the earliest&nbsp;known&nbsp;fossils&nbsp;of our species&nbsp;\u2013found&nbsp;in Morocco,&nbsp;some 10,000 kilometres to the&nbsp;west.&nbsp;The skull hints that modern humans aren\u2019t solely descended from African ancestors, as is generally thought.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\u5fae\u4fe1\u56fe\u7247_20171117145725.jpg\" style=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/media.hiredchina.com\/FudgSLxyTc_-7qUOQ8oxc0SwXv5L?imageView2\/0\/format\/webp\/q\/75\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" title=\"\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/p>\n<p><font>What can the Dali skull tell us?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Photo: Newscientist Sheela Athreya<\/font><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Most anthropologists believe, based on fossil evidence, that our species arose in Africa around 200,000 years ago. What\u2019s more, genetic studies of modern humans indicate that we are all descended from a single population that left Africa&nbsp;within the last 120,000 years and spread around the world. This African group is the source of all modern human genes, barring a few gained by interbreeding with other species like Neanderthals.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">However,&nbsp;the&nbsp;Dali skull&nbsp;may not fit this story. Discovered in China\u2019s Shaanxi Province in 1978, it is remarkably complete, preserving both the face and the brain case.&nbsp;A study published in April&nbsp;concluded&nbsp;the skull is about 260,000 years old.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><font><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\u5fae\u4fe1\u56fe\u7247_20171117145728.jpg\" style=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/media.hiredchina.com\/FoIyUDfeYlKXrFKwl_2RQkIaYGbr?imageView2\/0\/format\/webp\/q\/75\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" title=\"\"><br \/><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font>Photo: Newscientist&nbsp; Sheela Athreya<\/font><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">When researchers first described the&nbsp;Dali&nbsp;skull in 1979,&nbsp;they&nbsp;assumed&nbsp;it belonged to&nbsp;Homo erectus. This hominin&nbsp;species&nbsp;arrived in South-East Asia&nbsp;1.8 million years ago and&nbsp;probably&nbsp;disappeared from the region by about 140,000 years ago. That fits with the standard story.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">But by&nbsp;1981,&nbsp;Xinzhi Wu&nbsp;at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing had noticed that the Dali skull\u2019s face had many features in common with our species,&nbsp;Homo sapiens. This suggested&nbsp;that&nbsp;H. erectus&nbsp;in east Asia<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/p>\n<p>Source: Newscientist<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"gic.jpg\" style=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/media.hiredchina.com\/FlXXlKXBxtykYAuKbjvAxKMwIbVH?imageView2\/0\/format\/webp\/q\/75\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" title=\"\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The origins of our species might need a rethink. An analysis of an ancient skull from China suggests it is eerily similar to the earliest known fossils of our species &#8230;","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}