Skulls offer new evidence of human evolution in China

ZHENGZHOU - New evidence has emerged that prehistoric hominids in northern China might have been hybrids of the indigenous population and Europeans, challenging the popular view of humankind's African origin.

Human cranial fossil remains from 105,000 to 125,000 years ago, found in Xuchang in Central China's Henan province, share characteristics of Chinese hominids, early modern humans and Neanderthals, a species named for the Neanderthal region of Germany, according to a report in Science magazine on Thursday.

Research on two skulls, Xuchang 1 and Xuchang 2, discovered in 2007 and 2014 respectively, show a similar occipital bone and inner ear labyrinth structure to Neanderthals, said Li Zhanyang, first author of the report and a researcher with the Henan provincial institute of cultural heritage and archaeology.