Dragon Man: ancient skull from China could be new human species (2024)

FAQs

Dragon Man: ancient skull from China could be new human species? ›

Dragon Man: ancient skull from China could be new human species. A huge cranium found in the Songhua River in China represents a new sister lineage for hom*o sapiens. It dates to at least 146,000 years old.

Now, nearly 90 years later, a study published in the journal The Innovation makes the case that this skull represents a new human species: hom*o longi, or the Dragon Man. Two additional studies reveal that the stunningly preserved cranium likely came from a male that died at least 146,000 years ago.

This is hom*o longi – or “Dragon man” – from Harbin in north-east China. This key fossil is made up of an almost complete skull with a braincase as big as a modern human's and a flat face with delicate cheekbones. Dating suggests it is at least 150,000 years old.

H. longi is broadly anatomically similar to other Middle Pleistocene Chinese specimens. Like other archaic humans, the skull is low and long, with massively developed brow ridges, wide eye sockets, and a large mouth. The skull is the longest ever found from any human species.

The researchers have published their findings in the journal The Innovation and have said that the cranium of the skull could be over 146,000 years old. The researchers have said that the newly discovered skull belongs to a new human species. They have called it the hom*o longi or 'Dragon Man'.

They have assigned the specimen to a new species: hom*o longi, from the Chinese word "long", meaning dragon. "We found our long-lost sister lineage," said Xijun Ni, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Hebei GEO University in Shijiazhuang.

The 240 million-year-old fossil's neck has 32 separate vertebrae, longer than its body and tail combined.

A new ancestor of hom*o sapiens has been named by scientists as part of an effort to clean up our ancestry. hom*o bodoensis is named for a skull discovered in Bodo D'Ar, Ethiopia in the 1970s, and is thought to date back to the Chibanian Age 600,000 years ago.

When these remains were excavated and studied, the results were even more spectacular than first thought: they belonged to roughly 15 individuals of an entirely new species of 300,000-year-old human, which was named hom*o naledi. The skeletons revealed that the new human species had a curious mix of features.

Archaic admixture. Genetic evidence suggests that a species dubbed hom*o heidelbergensis is the last common ancestor of Neanderthals, Denisovans, and hom*o sapiens. This common ancestor lived between 600,000 and 750,000 years ago, likely in either Europe or Africa.

Could another species of human still exist? ›

There may be more genetic remnants in isolated and protected populations of people, but it would still be very unlikely. Humans are everywhere, and our genome is consistent enough that a species difference would be easy to spot from phenotype or genotype.

Gigantopithecus blacki is the largest hominoid that ever lived. The consensus view is that it is a specialized pongine and late-surviving member of the Sivapithecus-Indopithecus lineage. It is known primarily from Early and Middle Pleistocene cave sites in southern China, dating from 2.0 Ma to almost 300 ka.

Analyses suggest that Dragon Man is more closely related to hom*o sapiens than to Neanderthals.

The largest skull documented in medical literature belonged to a man with a cranial capacity of 1,980 cm³ (120 in³). Although the shape of his skull was normal, the cranial capacity of a human skull averages at between 950 – 1,800 cm³ (57.9 – 109 in³) depending on age and body size.

Average dragon men stand around 165 cm (5 ft 5 inches) and women 153 cm (5 ft) tall, similar to pre-industrial common humans. The braincases of dragon men males and women average about 1,600 cm (98 cu inches) and 1,300 cm (79 cu inches) respectively, which is within the range of the values for common humans.

Dragons do not exist in real life; they were created by ancient Chinese religious totems and cultures, and gradually improved and perfected into the modern image of the dragon that we see today.

It sounds really cool, but it just doesn't exist anywhere in nature, and there's nothing to suggest it ever did. There are fossils of extinct creatures that look similar to the dragons that ancient legends describe, but they lack the real defining characteristics of dragons.

It was reportedly discovered in 1933 when a bridge was built over the Songhua River in northeast China's Harbin City, having been buried in sediment for thousands of years. It was reanalysed by Chris, Ji and the team.