400,000-Year-Old Homo Erectus Teeth Show Traces in Living People

· Science · China

Proteins extracted from 400,000-year-old Homo erectus teeth found in China have produced evidence that an ancient human species once considered an evolutionary dead end may have left genetic traces in people alive today. The discovery, described as rewriting part of the story of human evolution, rests on ancient protein analysis rather than DNA, since the material was too old for conventional genetic sequencing. Homo erectus was long thought to have vanished without contributing to modern lineages. The finding challenges that view and adds to a growing body of work showing that interbreeding and contact among ancient human groups was more extensive than once assumed. The items do not specify which modern populations carry the traces or how large the contribution is.

Why it matters：It extends the use of ancient protein analysis where DNA cannot survive and reopens the question of how much archaic species contributed to modern human ancestry.

Key points

  • The evidence comes from proteins, not DNA, extracted from the teeth.
  • Homo erectus was previously thought to be an evolutionary dead end.
  • The teeth were discovered in China and are about 400,000 years old.

Sources (original reporting)

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