A recent study, based on the digital reconstruction of a million-year-old skull found in China, suggests that human evolution may have diverged 400,000 years earlier than previously thought and potentially originated in Asia, not Africa.

• The skull, labeled Yunxian 2, was digitally reconstructed using advanced CT scanning and virtual techniques.
• Anthropologist Chris Stringer from the Natural History Museum, London, part of the research team, stated the findings suggest an earlier and more complex human evolutionary split.
• The reconstruction revealed features similar to later species like Homo longi and Homo sapiens, challenging previous classifications as Homo erectus.