Of nine disputed or revised dates and claims, later dating made three older; four remain disputed over the evidence
| Date or claim | What was claimed | Claimed by | The other position | Disputed or revised by | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First people in the Americas (White Sands footprints) | 23,000–21,000 years; supported by pollen and luminescence dates (23,000–21,000) and lake-mud dates (22,400–20,700) | Bennett et al., Science, 2021; Pigati et al., Science, 2023; Holliday et al., Science Advances, 2025 | No alternative age proposed; the dated seeds may read too old because of a hard-water reservoir effect (a 1947 sample from Malpais Spring gave about 7,400 years) | Madsen et al., Science, 2022; Oviatt et al., Quaternary Research, 2023 | disputed |
| First people in Sahul (Madjedbebe) | About 65,000 years | Clarkson et al., Nature, 2017 | An age above 50,000 years is unlikely; main dispersal from Africa 55,000–50,000 years ago | O'Connell et al., PNAS, 2018 | disputed |
| Neanderthal cave paintings in Spain | Older than 64,000 years, before Homo sapiens reached Europe, so made by Neanderthals | Hoffmann et al., Science, 2018 | No alternative age proposed; uranium–thorium dates on crusts can overstate age if uranium leached out | White, Bosinski and Bourrillon, Journal of Human Evolution, 2020 | disputed |
| Burial and engraving by Homo naledi | Deliberate burials and engravings, 335,000–236,000 years ago | Berger et al., eLife, 2025 | Dates not disputed; no scientific evidence of burial or rock art | Martinón-Torres, Garate, Herries and Petraglia, Journal of Human Evolution, 2024 | disputed |
| Name of the Harbin population | A new species, Homo longi | Ji et al., The Innovation, 2021 | Denisovan, by mitochondrial DNA and proteins | Fu et al., Cell, 2025; Fu et al., Science, 2025 | disputed |
| Age of Penghu 1 | 10,000–70,000 or 130,000–190,000 years (two ranges) | Chang et al., Nature Communications, 2015 | Unresolved between the two ranges | Tsutaya et al., Science, 2025 (identification only) | unresolved |
| Age of Homo luzonensis | At least 50,000 and 67,000 years | Détroit et al., Nature, 2019 | At least 130,000 years | Grün and Stringer, Quaternary Science Reviews, 2023 | revised |
| Age of Omo I, Homo sapiens | 195,000 ± 5,000 years | McDougall, Brown and Fleagle, Nature, 2005 | At least 233,000 ± 22,000 years | Vidal et al., Nature, 2022 | revised |
| Age of the Jebel Irhoud fossils | About 160,000 years (electron spin resonance, as used in 2007) | Smith et al., PNAS, 2007 | 315,000 ± 34,000 years (thermoluminescence) | Richter et al., Nature, 2017 | revised |
Source. The papers named in each row, linked in Sources.