Scientists announced the discovery of a new human species, which they called "Dragon Man".

This name did not come because it breathes fire or flies like a legendary dragon, but rather due to the discovery of its skull fossil in the Chinese city of Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province, which means "Dragon River".

The new human species has been given the name Homo longi.

Exciting Hideaway

Although this skull was discovered in 1933, it has been hidden ever since.

The Chinese contractor of workers hid it from the eyes of the Japanese invaders and did not hand it over to his Japanese boss when he discovered it.

In order to hide her completely, he buried her in an abandoned well where she remained for 85 years until he told his family about it just before his death.

Indeed, the family found it in 2018 and donated it to the Earth Science Museum of Hebei GEO University of China.

This skull has been left without being dated for its exact age or the lineage to which it belongs since its discovery.

Recently, an international team, including scientists from Britain, Australia and China, probed the depths of this skull.

3 separate research studies on this skull, published in the journal "The Innovation" on June 25, indicated that this skull is the closest link to our species.

Fossil "Human Longi" is one of the most complete skulls in the world (Yurik Alert-Kai Jung)

The most complete

"The Harbin fossil is one of the most complete human skull fossils in the world," said Qiang Jie, a professor of palaeontology at Hebei Jiu University and a participant in the three studies.

"This fossil has preserved many morphological details important for understanding the evolution of the human race and for knowing the origin of Homo sapiens," he added.


Although this skull possessed some features of ancient human skulls, it differs from that of modern Homo sapiens.

It had square eye sockets, thick eyebrows, a wider mouth, and large teeth.

This skull was much larger than that of Homo sapiens or any other human species.

However, the size of the brain of this skull is similar to the size of the brains of our species.

The size of the skull is noteworthy, as it shows - despite its huge - the ability to carry a brain similar in size to the brain of modern humans.

Regarding the features of this skull, Ji says that it "has a mixture of primitive and other features that distinguish it from all other human species," which led to its classification as a new species.

The "Lungi Man" lived in an environment full of forests and plains (Yurik Alert-Chung Zhou)

Define a family tree

Chemical analysis of the sediment in the skull revealed that it belonged to a 50-year-old man, and the cause of his death was unknown.

Scientists believe that this man and his tribe lived in an environment full of forests and plains.

They see that their lives were similar to the life of Homo sapiens, and they hunted mammals and birds and collected fruits and vegetables, and perhaps they were catching fish, as the team mentions.

The sediments in which the sample was discovered also showed that it dates back to the middle Pleistocene period, ie for the period from 800,000 to 125,000 years ago.

Radioactive uranium dating showed that the skull dates back to 146,000 years ago.

In this regard, Chris Stringer, an ancient anthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London, states that "there may have been a convergence that occurred between the ancestors of our species Homo sapiens and Homo longi. Especially since we do not know when the lineage of Homo longi disappeared."

Studies of human origins have long believed that Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) were most closely related to our modern species.

However, this discovery takes us one step further from Neanderthals.

The age of the skull dates back to 146,000 years ago (communication sites)

And according to the press report - published by The Conversation - the comparisons that were previously made between our species and Neanderthals become less important to understanding the reason that enabled us to be what we are now as sane humans.

Thus, this new skull redraws the human family tree anew. Scientists suggest that the distinction between us and Neanderthals may be 400,000 years older than scientists previously thought.