Updated

New fossil analysis from South Africa's Drimolen Cave, including an adult Homo erectus skull fragment dated to about 2 million years ago, suggests the species appeared in southern Africa roughly 200,000 years earlier than previously believed. The study described 18 hominin fossils in total. The findings also show that Paranthropus robustus, which lived alongside early Homo erectus, was evolving larger teeth and stronger chewing muscles during the same period, reshaping scientists' understanding of early human evolution and the coexistence of multiple hominin species.