'Dragon Man': Scientists say new human species is our closest ancestor
26 June, 2021
Scientists announced on Friday (Jun 25) that a skull learned in northeast China represents a newly learned human species they have named Homo longi, or "Dragon Man" - plus they say the lineage should replace Neanderthals as our closest relatives.
The Harbin cranium was learned in the 1930s in the city of the same name in Heilongjiang province, but was reportedly hidden in a well for 85 years to safeguard it from japan army.
It was later dug up and handed to Ji Qiang, a professor at Hebei GEO University, in 2018.
"On our analyses, the Harbin group is more closely linked to H sapiens compared to the Neanderthals are - that's, Harbin shared a far more recent common ancestor around compared to the Neanderthals did," co-author Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum, London told AFP.
"If these are regarded as distinct species, then this is our sister (most closely related) species."
The findings were published in three papers in the journal The Innovation.
The skull goes back at least 146,000 years, placing it in the centre Pleistocene.
It might hold a brain comparable in size compared to that of modern humans but with larger eye sockets, thick brow ridges, a broad mouth and oversized teeth.
"Although it shows typical archaic human features, the Harbin cranium presents a mosaic combo of primitive and derived characters setting itself apart from all the other previously named Homo species," said Ji, a co-author of the analysis.
The name comes from Long Jiang, which literally means "Dragon River."
The team believe the cranium belonged to a male, around 50 years old, moving into a forested floodplain.
"This population would have been hunter-gatherers, living off the land," said Stringer. "From the wintertime temperatures in Harbin today, it appears like they were coping with even harsher cold than the Neanderthals."
Given the spot that the skull was found along with the large-sized man it implies, the team believe H longi might have been well adapted for harsh environments and could have been able to disperse throughout Asia.
FAMILY TREE
Researchers first studied the external morphology of the cranium using over 600 traits, and ran an incredible number of simulations utilizing a computer model to build trees of relatedness to other fossils.
"These advise that Harbin and some other fossils from China form a third lineage of later humans alongside the Neanderthals and H sapiens," explained Stringer.
If Homo sapiens had reached East Asia at that time Homo longi was present, they might have interbred, though this is simply not clear.
There are also many answered questions about their culture and technology level, as a result of too little archaeological material.
However the finding could still reshape our knowledge of human evolution.
"It establishes a third human lineage in East Asia using its own evolutionary history and shows how important the spot was for human evolution," said Stringer.
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