According to a team member Nina Jablonski, juvenile crania of apes and hominins are extremely rare in the fossil record, especially those of infants and young juveniles. This cranium is only the second relatively complete cranium of a young juvenile in the entire Miocene- 23-25 million years ago- record of the fossil apes throughout the old world, and both were discovered from the late Miocene of Yunnan Province.
The cranium is also noteworthy for its age. it's just over 6 million years old, dates to near the end of the Miocene, a time when apes had become extinct in the most of the Eurasia.
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