Discovery of new human kind of species in China

     Scientists reported on Friday that a gigantic fossilized skull dating back at least 140,000 years has been identified as a new species of ancient human, a discovery that could redefine how — and even where — our species, Homo sapiens, originated.

    The skull of an adult guy with a large brain, gigantic brow ridges, deep-set eyes, and a bulbous nose was discovered. After a labourer discovered it at a building site in China, it had been hidden in an abandoned well for 85 years.

    The new species was given the name Homo longi, and the nickname "Dragon Man" was given to it after the Dragon River region of northeast China, where the skull was discovered.

    According to the researchers, Homo longi, not Neanderthals, was the most closely linked extinct human species to our own. If validated, it would affect how scientists see Homo sapiens' origins, which have been built up over time through fossil finds and ancient DNA analyses.

Dragon Man Fossile

    However, in three studies that provided the first extensive examination of the fossil, a number of scientists questioned this finding. Despite this, many people believed the discovery would aid scientists in reconstructing the human family tree and how modern humans originated.

    It is a remarkable fossil, according to all of the scientists who analyzed the material in the study.

    John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, stated, "It's a lovely thing." “It's really rare to come across a fossil with such a well-preserved face. You've always wanted to find this stuff.”

    The strange skull was discovered in 1933 by a labourer working on a bridge construction site in Harbin. The man, whose name has been protected by his family, most likely realized he had discovered a scientifically significant specimen. Only four years before, archaeologists had discovered another humanoid skull in Beijing, dubbed Peking Man. It appeared to connect Asian people to their evolutionary forefathers.

    The labourer elected to hide the fresh skull rather than pass it over to the Japanese authorities in charge of northeast China at the time. For decades, he didn't mention the skull to anyone. The authors of the new publications suggested in their report of the fossil's finding that he was ashamed of having worked with the Japanese.

    The labourer notified his family about the fossil shortly before his death in 2018. They searched for the well and discovered it. The family presented it to Hebei GEO University's Geoscience Museum, where scientists instantly noticed how well it had been kept.

    The researchers claimed in their articles published on Friday that Homo longi was an adult of considerable proportions. His mouth was wide and his cheeks were flat. The lower jaw is missing, but the researchers believe the Dragon Man lacked a chin based on his upper jaw and other fossil human skulls. According to reports, his brain was around 7% larger than the average human brain.

    The researchers claim that Dragon Man's anatomical traits are present in no other known species of hominin, a bipedal ape lineage that split from other African apes. They evolved into large-brained animals, later on, paving the way for Homo sapiens to spread over the globe.

    Christopher Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London and co-author of two of the three Dragon Man publications, said, "It's distinct enough to be a new species."

    The scientists calculated that the fossil was at least 146,000 years old, but no older than 309,000 years, based on its chemical composition.

    Only one species of hominin lives on the earth today: Homo sapiens. However, Dragon Man lived at a time when a variety of hominins coexisted, including Homo erectus — a tall human with a brain two-thirds the size of ours — and tiny hominins like Homo naledi in South Africa, Homo floresiensis in Indonesia, and Homo luzonensis in the Philippines.

    This is also when the oldest Homo sapiens fossils were discovered. During the time when Dragon Man may have lived, Neanderthals — who shared our huge brain and advanced toolmaking — roamed Europe and Central Asia.

    In recent years, examinations of fossil DNA have uncovered the Denisovans, a human-like ancestry from this time period. Isolated teeth, chipped bones, and even soil provided the majority of the DNA. Those relics are insufficient to reveal the appearance of Denisovans.

   The most intriguing Denisovan fossil so far has been discovered in a cave in Tibet: a large jaw with two thick teeth that dates back at least 160,000 years. Scientists extracted proteins from the jaw in 2019, and their molecular makeup implies they came from a Denisovan, not a modern human or a Neanderthal.

    The shared ancestors of Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, and Denisovans existed 600,000 years ago, according to molecular evidence and fossil evidence.

    Our lineage branched off on its own, and then Neanderthals and Denisovans diverged 400,000 years ago. Neanderthals and Denisovans, in other words, were our closest extinct cousins. They even interbred with current humans' ancestors, and we still possess some of their DNA.

    However, many mysteries remain from this period of human history, particularly in East Asia. Paleoanthropologists have discovered a number of fossils, many of which are partial or damaged, that have certain characteristics that resemble our own species and others that imply they belong elsewhere in the human family tree.

    The Dragon Man skull could “help clarify some of the confusion,” according to Katerina Harvati, a paleoanthropologist from the University of Tübingen in Germany who was not involved in the new study.

    The scientists examined Homo longi's anatomy to 54 hominin fossils to figure out where it fits into the human family tree. The researchers discovered that it is part of a lineage that includes a Denisovan jaw discovered in Tibet.

    The skull was even more comparable to a fragment of a 200,000-year-old skull unearthed in 1978 in the Chinese county of Dali. Some scientists believed the Dali fossil related to our species, but others believed it belonged to an older lineage. Others even dubbed the fossil Homo daliensis, a new species.

    According to the authors of the new study, Dragon Man, the Tibetan jaw, and the Dali skull are all members of the same lineage – one that is the most closely related to our own species. While Homo longi had different characteristics, it also had qualities in common with us, such as a flat face tucked beneath its forehead rather than thrusting out like Neanderthals.

    “The Neanderthal is thought to be a member of an extinct lineage that is the closest relative of our own species. In a news release, Xijun Ni, a co-author of the findings and a paleoanthropologist from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Hebei GEO University, said, "Our result shows that the new lineage we uncovered that contains Homo longi is the genuine sister group of H. sapiens."

    These findings have sparked discussion among paleoanthropologists, including the authors of the new studies.

    Some of the discussion revolves around the name Dragon Man. When it comes to naming new species, scientists adhere to specific guidelines. If they are as close as the writers allege, Dragon Man would have to share a name with the Dali skull.

    Stringer stated, "In my opinion, it is a unique species that I would prefer to designate Homo daliensis."

    Other academics believed the Tibetan jaw's Denisovan-like proteins and the Harbin skull's similarities pointed to Dragon Man's true identity.

    Philipp Gunz, a paleoanthropologist at Leipzig's Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, remarked, "When I first saw the picture of the fossil, I thought, now we finally know what Denisovans looked like."

    “Harbin is better characterised as a Denisovan,” Karen Baab, a paleoanthropologist at Midwestern University in Arizona, concurred.

    A slew of indicators points in that direction. The huge shape of the tooth on Dragon Man's upper jaw resembles that of the Denisovan jaw found in Tibet, for example. Both are missing a third molar. Denisovan DNA indicates that Dragon Man lived in Asia at the same period that Denisovan DNA indicates.

    There would be more mysteries to unravel even if Dragon Man was a Denisovan. Denisovan DNA strongly demonstrates that their nearest relatives were Neanderthals. The latest research, which is based on fossil anatomy, suggests that Homo longi and Homo sapiens are more closely related than Neanderthals.

    Bence Viola, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Toronto who was not involved in the new study, said, “I think the genetic evidence in this situation is more reliable than the morphological data.”

    “Obviously, something isn't quite right,” Stringer admitted. “What matters is that a third human lineage in East Asia has been identified, with its own distinct set of characteristics.”

    Obtaining DNA from Dragon Man's unique skull would be one method to answer the riddle of his origins. Stringer anticipates additional surprises, saying, "It's going to be a more convoluted plot."