Peaches are widely popular, but the juicy fruit has been in China before the arrival of modern humans in the region. A new research revealed that before ancient humans reached modern-day China, the fruit was already there.

Fossilized peach pits unearthed in southwest China have given hints that peaches may have grown in the East Asian country for millions of years, as per the research published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Researchers discovered the first fossil peach pits during a road construction. After analysis, it was found that the pits could be more than 2.5 million years old. According to the researchers, the most surprising thing about the fossilized pits was that they were similar to today’s peach pits. Like modern-day peach pits, the ancient pits have an oval shape, the researchers explained.

The only difference was in size. The prehistoric pits are small in size compared with today’s fruits. The researchers think the ancient peaches grew to approximately two inches across. Peter Wilf, co-author of the research, said in a statement that if imagined, the modern smallest commercial peach would look like ancient peach.

The researchers also estimated that the ancient peach has small size, but it was likely deliciously juicy. “Is the peach we see today something that resulted from artificial breeding under agriculture since prehistory, or did it evolve under natural selection? The answer is really both”, Wilf explained.

Tao Su, lead author of the research, unearthed the ancient fossilized peach pits in Kunming during a road construction.