Chinese scientists have discovered an ancient skull that may belong to a completely new human species. The research team says it is our closest evolutionary relative among the known species of ancient humans such as Neanderthals and Homo erectus. The specimen, called the "Dragon Man", represents a group of people who lived in East Asia at least 146,000 years ago. It was found in Harbin, Northeast China, in 1933, but has only recently attracted the attention of scientists.
The skull analysis was published in The Innovation magazine. One of the UK's leading experts on human evolution, Professor Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London, was a member of the research team. When it comes to fossils from the last million years, it is one of the most important finds.
We have a separate branch of humanity that is not on the way to becoming Homo sapiens (our species), but is a separate line that has developed in this region over several hundred thousand years and eventually died out. Scientists say this discovery could rewrite the history of human evolution. Their analysis shows that it is more closely related to Homo sapiens than to Neanderthals. They assigned the specimen to a new species: Homo longi, from the Chinese word "long" meaning dragon.
We discovered our long-lost line. The skull is huge compared to the average skulls of other human species. His brain was comparable in size to that of our species. The dragoman had large, nearly square eye sockets, thick eyebrow arches, a wide mouth, and huge teeth. Professor Qiang Ji of Hebei GEO University says it is one of the most complete fossils of early human skulls ever discovered.
It combines primitive and more modern features in a mosaic, which makes it different from all other human species. Scientists believe that the dragon man was extremely complex and strong. But little is known about how he lived as his skull was removed from where it was found. This means that there is currently no archaeological context such as stone tools or other cultural elements.
According to reports, the skull was discovered in 1933 by a builder who helped build a bridge over the Songhua River that flows through Harbin in Heilongjiang Province, which means "Black Dragon River," hence the name of the new man. At that time, the city was under Japanese occupation. Suspecting its cultural value, a Chinese worker smuggled it home to prevent it from falling into the hands of the occupiers. He hid it at the bottom of his family well, where he lay for about 80 years. Before his death, the man told his family about the skull and so it ended up in the hands of scientists.
Dragon Man joins many early human remains found in China that proved difficult to classify. These include the remains from Dali, Jinnyushan, Hualundong, and Xiahe's jaw from the Tibetan Plateau. There is a heated debate as to whether these remains represent primitive specimens of Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, a group of people known as Denisovans, or something else entirely. Denisations were first identified from DNA extracted from 50,000-30,000 years old finger bones found in Denisov's Cave in Russia. Because the remains of this Neanderthal-related lineage were so fragmented, this group was dubbed the "fossil-seeking genome."
Professor Martha Mirazon Lahr of the University of Cambridge believes that the Dragon Man was a Denisovan. The Denisovans are an amazing, enigmatic population from the past. There is speculation (based on DNA evidence) that the jaw found in the Tibetan Plateau may be a Denisovian, she said. "And now, since the Tibetan jaw and the dragon-man are alike, now we can have the first Denisovan face." And the group that revealed details of Israeli remains belonging to a possible Neanderthal predecessor believes the Dragon Man may be a descendant of humans who first appeared in the Levant region.
But Chinese scientists say the difficult-to-classify East Asian fossils represent the gradual evolution of a new species. Professor Nee kindly replies to those who disagree with this assessment. "The results obtained will cause a lot of controversies and I'm sure many people will disagree with us," he said. "But it's science, and that's because we disagree, science is progressing."
No comments:
Post a Comment