News Anthropology

Chinese Roots: Skull may complicate human-origins debate

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

In 1958, farm workers digging in a cave in southern China’s Liujiang County discovered several human bones including a skull. Relying on its resemblance to securely dated human fossils in Japan, scientists assigned this Homo sapiens skull an age of 20,000 to 30,000 years.

ASIAN CONNECTION. If southern China’s Liujiang skull is really more than 100,000 years old, this modern Homo sapiens fossil will shake up theories of human evolution.