DNA can be extracted from fossils reveals expert
We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info
Some 88 years ago, a giant, nearly intact human skull was found. Yet it was not known about until just three years ago. A construction worker made the discovery while helping to build a bridge on the Songhua river, which runs through Harbin in the Chinese province of Heilongjang. When translated, it means Black Dragon River, hence the discovery has been called ‘Homo longi’ or ‘Dragon Man’.
At the time ‒ 1933 ‒ Harbin was under Japanese rule. The construction worker smuggled it home, suspecting it had significant cultural value.
He hid it at the bottom of his family’s well, only telling them on his deathbed, which is how it reached the hands of scientists.
Some of the scientists, analysing the skull for the first time this year, believe the cranium could represent an entirely new human species.
Xijun Ni, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was part of the team studying the skull.
He said: “It’s a really amazing discovery. It is one of the most complete crania I have ever seen.”
Professor Chris Stringer, from London’s Natural History Museum, told the New Scientist in June: “This is the biggest human skull I’ve seen — and I’ve seen a few!”
Analysis, published in the journal The Innovation, said it is “one of the best-preserved of all archaic human fossils”, and will have “great significance” for helping to understand the origin of Homo sapiens.”
The species that all living human beings belong to is Homo sapiens.
The analysis continued: “It represents a new human lineage evolving in East Asia, and is placed as a member of the sister group of Homo sapiens.
“A combination of primitive and derived features in the Harbin cranium establishes a good set of diagnostic features that were used to define a new Homo species.”
Prof Stringer, one of the UK’s leading human evolution experts, stressed the importance of Dragon Man.
He told BBC News: “In terms of fossils in the last million years, this is one of the most important yet discovered.
“What you have here is a separate branch of humanity that is not on its way to becoming Homo sapiens, but represents a long-separate lineage which evolved in the region for several hundred thousand years and eventually went extinct.”
The discovery, the researchers claim, could rewrite the story of human evolution.
It is believed to be more closely related to Homo sapiens than it is to Neanderthals, an extinct species of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until approximately 40,000 years ago.
DON’T MISS:
Alzheimer’s breakthrough as study suggests one vitamin ‘could protect’ [INSIGHT]
Chicago warning as city ‘sinking’ into the ground [REPORT]
Archaeologist baffled by ancient body reattached ‘like a human puppet’ [QUOTES]
Compared to the average skull seen in other human species, Dragon Man’s was huge, yet his brain was comparable in size to those from our species.
Researchers believe the skull belonged to a man, around 50 years old when he died.
Other features, too, stand out. He had large, almost square eye sockets and a wide mouth with oversized teeth.
Prof Stringer, speaking to New Scientist, analysed the skull: “It’s got such an interesting combination of features.
“The morphology shows that this is definitely a distinct lineage in eastern Asia. It’s not Neanderthal and it’s not Homo sapiens, it’s something quite distinctive.”
Little is known about how Dragon Man would have lived, because his skull was removed from the site where it was initially found.
Unfortunately, there is currently no archaeological context.
Much debate remains within the scientific community as to whether these remains could derive from a human group called the Denisovans, rather than being an entirely new species.
Denisovans were first identified from DNA recovered from a 50,000-30,000-year-old finger discovered in Russia.
Denisovan skulls have so far proved very difficult to track down, although a jawbone was discovered in Tibet in 2019.
Prof Stringer continued: “I think it’s possible that Harbin will turn out to be a Denisovan skull, the most complete one.
“That’s something we’ll have to test with DNA, but that’s probably a long shot because it’s at least 146,000 years old.”
The Chinese researchers, however, maintain that these fossils from Asia could represent the gradual evolution of a new species.
Dr Ni told BBC News: “The results will spark a lot of debate and I am quite sure that a lot of people will disagree with us.
“But that is science and it is because we disagree that science progresses.”
Source: Read Full Article
