Palaeontology

'Dragon Man' could be new human species

By T.K. Randall
June 27, 2021 ·  5 comments

The face of our ancestors. Image Credit: Wei Gao A few days ago we reported that a previously unknown species of human - Nesher Ramla Homo - had been unearthed in Israel and now, incredibly, another new human species has been found - this time in China.

Originally discovered in Harbin, north-east China all the way back in 1933, the fossil skull was practically forgotten about for decades before coming to the attention of scientists.

Nicknamed 'Dragon Man', the specimen is now thought to have belonged to a group of humans who lived in East Asia around 146,000 years ago and who were closely related to modern humans.The species had large square eye sockets, thick brow ridges, a wide mouth and large teeth.

"In terms of fossils in the last million years, this is one of the most important yet discovered," Prof Chris Stringer from London's Natural History Museum told BBC News.

"What you have here is a separate branch of humanity that is not on its way to becoming Homo sapiens (our species), but represents a long-separate lineage which evolved in the region for several hundred thousand years and eventually went extinct."

🚨 Breaking news: A huge skull found in the Songhua River in China represents a new sister lineage for Homo sapiens. It dates to at least 146,000 years old and has been dubbed 'Dragon Man'.

This is a remarkable piece in the jigsaw of human evolution. https://t.co/o3SMeyE8Pm

— Natural History Museum (@NHM_London) June 25, 2021

Source: BBC News | Comments (5)

Tags: Dragon, Human, Homo