A '60s Villager Found An Ancient Skull. 65 Years Later, It's Identified As Rare Human Species

It's been nearly 200 years since biologist Charles Darwin published his masterpiece, "On the Origin of Species." In it, he posited the idea that all creatures — including humans — exist as the result of a process of evolution, which takes place over the course of hundreds of thousands of years. Since then, his theory has become established as scientific fact. Decades of research have shown that modern humans, known by the scientific name Homo sapiens, evolved from previous primate species around 300,000 years ago. And they once shared the planet with other humanoids, such as the Neanderthals , a formerly dominant human species that gradually died out as Homo sapiens grew more populous.

But the nature of scientific inquiry is that nothing is taken for granted, and scientific consensus