New dating of fossil skulls from the Early Pleistocene site of Yunxian in China suggests that early members of Homo erectus lived in eastern Asia nearly 1.77 million years ago, pushing the region’s human story back at least 670,000 years and strengthening the case for a rapid dispersal out of Africa.
Reconstruction of Homo erectus.
The oldest known fossils of Homo erectus in Asia date to between 1.78 and 1.85 million years ago and were found at Dmanisi in Georgia (Sakartvelo).
Farther east, however, the age of the earliest Homo erectus remains has long been a matter of debate.
“While Homo erectus, our distant ancestor, is widely recognized to have originated in Africa before dispersing into Eurasia, the precise timeline of its arrival in eastern Asia was unknown,” said Dr. Christopher Bae, a researcher at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa.
“Using the combination of the Yunxian Homo erectus fossils and burial dating data, we have now been able to recreate a fairly robust dating reconstruction of when these hominins appeared in eastern Asia.”
The researchers used aluminum-26 (Al-26) and beryllium-10 (Be-10) burial dating to determine the age of the Yunxian fossils.
“Al-26 and Be-10 isotopes are produced when cosmic rays hit quartz minerals,” said Dr. Hua Tu, a researcher at Shantou University and Nanjing Normal University.
“Once buried deeply underground, isotope production stops and radioactive decay takes over.”
“By using aluminum’s and beryllium’s known decay rates, and comparing the ratio of the two types of atoms left in sediment samples surrounding a fossil, we can calculate how long a fossil has been buried.”
“This is key as traditional carbon-14 dating is limited to the last 50,000 years while the Al-26/Be-10 method allows us to accurately date materials as far back as 5 million years ago.”
Previous dating efforts placed the Yunxian fossils between about 800,000 years and 1.1 million years old.
“Our findings challenge long-held assumptions regarding when the earliest hominins are thought to have moved out of Africa and into Asia,” Dr. Bae said.
“While these results are significant, the mystery of exactly when Homo erectus first appeared and last appeared in the region remains.”
“If Homo erectus was not the earliest occupant to reach Asia, alternative species must be considered. The updated chronology for Yunxian is a critical step toward resolving these debates.”
The findings will appear in the February 20, 2026 issue of the journal Science Advances.
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Hua Tu et al. 2026. The oldest in situ Homo erectus crania in eastern Asia: The Yunxian site dates to ~1.77 Ma. Science Advances 12 (8): eady2270; doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ady2270
