A Science study published on September 18, 2026 reveals that the main Bronze Age population of the Eastern Tianshan, Xinjiang, combined East Asian and North Asian ancestry, based on genome-wide data from 135 ancient individuals (c. 3580-1546 BP) across 11 archaeological sites.

Published online in Nature on May 13, 2026, a study by Professor Qiaomei Fu’s team retrieved lineage-specific enamel protein information from ~400,000-year-old Homo erectus teeth from Zhoukoudian, Hexian and Sunjiadong, confirming that East Asian erectus formed a single evolutionary population whose genes may have reached modern humans via the Denisovans.