【#Tech24H】Homo erectus was the first ancient human species to leave Africa and spread across Eurasia, playing a key role in human evolution. However, unlike the rich molecular data available for Neanderthals and Denisovans, paleogenetic research on Homo erectus has long remained a blank. This is not due to a lack of fossils, but because traditional sampling methods would damage precious specimens, making research approval difficult to obtain. Researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other institutions have, for the first time, extracted lineage-specific molecular information from 400,000-year-old Homo erectus tooth fossils, confirming that Homo erectus populations in China belong to the same evolutionary lineage, and discovering that Homo erectus genes may have indirectly flowed into modern human populations through Denisovans.  [ By Zhang Liyan | Tang Ruohan ]