Researchers have pushed back the date humanity landed in China by a colossal 200,000 years, LiveScience reports. The latest dating of Homo erectus skulls from the Zhoukoudian cave system near Beijing show that Peking man is much older than we thought:
Some portion of the H. erectus population later left Africa and spread out across the Old World (the population left behind in Africa likely led to Homo heidelbergensis, from which the first early Homo sapiens likely derived, Ciochon said). Other sites of H. erectus bones show that the migration had reached Dmanisi, Georgia (in Asia), by about 1.75 million years ago and Java by about 1.6 million years ago.
“It’s a species that had legs,” Ciochon said, referring to the distances traveled. “Aside from Homo sapiens, it’s the most widespread hominin species.”
The new dates mean that H. erectus not only nudged into China more than once, but it also turned up during “glacial periods,” when most scientists had thought he had the good sense to stay inside enjoying a nice cup of cocoa rather than tromping around in the snow and forging new settlements.