Ideas shaping the concept of human evolution have largely played out through images. Characters with large brow ridges and sloping foreheads—including Homo neanderthalensis and Homo erectus—have consistently been depicted as the earliest forms of evolving humans. Now, new fossil evidence is turning the whole paradigm upside down. A skull fossil found in Mongolia in 2006 was linked to evolutionary icons like H. neanderthalensis and H. erectus because of its alleged “archaic” featur