In 1958, farmers in southern China uncovered several human bones including a skull. Being similar to securely dated human fossils in Japan, scientists assigned this Homo sapiens skull an age of 20,000 to 30,000 years. However, according to the December Journal of Human Evolution, the fossils probably came from sediment dating to 111,000 to 139,000 years ago, although it is still possible that they came from one of two cave deposits dating from around 68,000 years ago and 153,000 years ago. The revised dates come from analysing the soil deposits in the cave that is the fossils’ likely burial site. Uranium analyses at other sites also support an ancient origin of modern humans in southern China–human teeth found at two other caves come from sediment dating back at least 94,000 years. Evidence of homo sapiens in China this long ago complicates the popular out-of-Africa theory of human evolution, which claims that humans originated in Africa 100,000 to 200,000 years ago and spread out, replacing other Homo species. The full story can be found here.