From delegated right are the skulls of Peking Man, Maba, Jinniushan, Dali and Harbin crania. Image through EurekAlert/ Kai Geng.
A day in the life of Dragon Man
According to dating methods, Dragon Man walked the Earth a minimum of 146,000 years back, throughout the Middle Pleistocene. He was a large individual, roughly 50 years old, and lived in a little community in a forested, floodplain area. Xijun Ni, a professor of primatology and paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Hebei GEO University, stated:
Like Homo sapiens, they hunted birds and mammals, and collected vegetables and fruits, and perhaps even caught fish.
Artists concept of Dragon Man. Image via EurekAlert/ Chuang Zhao.
Dragon Mans plus size might have permitted it to adapt to harsh conditions, making it simpler for the types to spread out and travel throughout Asia. Homo longi and Homo sapiens might have mingled on the continent. Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at the Nature History Museum in London, stated:
We see numerous evolutionary family trees of Homo species and populations existing together in Asia, Africa and Europe throughout that time. If Homo sapiens certainly got to East Asia that early, they might have an opportunity to communicate with H. longi, and since we dont know when the Harbin group disappeared, there could have been later encounters.
A closer relative than the Neanderthals
The discovery of Dragon Man presses the Neanderthals farther away from us in lineage and moves our typical forefather even farther back in time. Ni said:
It is extensively thought that the Neanderthal belongs to an extinct family tree that is the closest relative of our own species. Our discovery recommends that the new lineage we determined that consists of Homo longi is the actual sister group of H. sapiens … The divergence time in between H. sapiens and the Neanderthals might be even deeper in evolutionary history than normally thought, over one million years.
Its possible Homo sapiens diverged from Neanderthals 400,000 years previously than scientists initially thought.
Artists principle of what Dragon Man would have looked like, based upon information from his skull. Image via The Innovation.
The discovery of Dragon Man adds another piece of the puzzle to the secret of evolution in the world. Ni said:
Entirely, the Harbin cranium offers more proof for us to comprehend Homo variety and evolutionary relationships among these varied Homo species and populations. We found our long-lost sibling lineage.
Bottom line: Scientists have determined that a skull discovered in China is a brand-new types, which they called Homo longi, or Dragon Man. They think Dragon Man is the closest relative to modern-day human beings, Homo sapiens.
Source: Geochemical provenancing and direct dating of the Harbin archaic human cranium
Source: Late Middle Pleistocene Harbin cranium represents a new Homo types
Source: Massive cranium from Harbin in northeastern China establishes a new Middle Pleistocene human lineage
Via EurekAlert
Kelly Kizer Whitt
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They named it Homo longi, or Dragon Man, and stated it might be the closest relative to contemporary people, Homo sapiens. If so, Dragon Man would change Neanderthals as the closest kin in our lineage and change what we know of human advancement.
The cranium is the biggest Homo skull ever found. Dragon Mans large size might have enabled it to adjust to harsh conditions, making it simpler for the types to travel and spread out throughout Asia. Homo longi and Homo sapiens might have mingled on the continent.
About the Author:
Kelly Kizer Whitt has actually been a science author specializing in astronomy for more than two years. When she is not writing or reading about astronomy and looking up at the stars, she delights in traveling to the nationwide parks, producing crossword puzzles, running, tennis, and paddleboarding. Kelly lives with her household in Wisconsin.
They named it Homo longi, or Dragon Man, and said it may be the closest relative to modern-day human beings, Homo sapiens. If so, Dragon Man would change Neanderthals as the closest kin in our lineage and change what we understand of human development.
Researchers published their findings in three different research studies in the peer-reviewed journal The Innovation on June 25, 2021.
The Harbin cranium
The brand-new types name of Homo longi obtains from the province where the Harbin cranium was found, Heilongjiang. Heilongjiang translates into English as Black Dragon River, which provides the species its label of Dragon Man.
The cranium is the biggest Homo skull ever discovered. The large size puts it in the series of contemporary humans, while other characteristics still separate it from us. The skull has bigger, nearly square eye sockets, thick ridges along the eyebrow, a broader mouth and larger teeth. Qiang Ji, a teacher of paleontology at Hebei GEO University, described:
The Harbin fossil is one of the most total human cranial fossils in the world. This fossil maintained lots of morphological details that are vital for comprehending the development of the Homo genus and the origin of Homo sapiens … While it reveals typical archaic human functions, the Harbin cranium presents a mosaic mix of primitive and derived characters setting itself apart from all the other previously named Homo types.
