According to a report by the Smithsonian, a 146,000-Year-Old fossilized skull known as Dragon Man may very well be one of our closest relatives. Researchers led by Ji Qiang at the Hebei GEO University’s museum and UK Professor Chris Stringer from London’s Natural History Museum.
The skull was discovered at Harbin, China, in 1933 by a worker. His family only recently donated the skull to the museum.
Harbin is in Heilongjiang province, which translates to Black Dragon River. That’s why the skull is nicknamed Dragon Man.
Dragon Man represents our human ancestor group. They lived in East Asia and were Middle Pleistocene humans. They were bridge descendants of Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, and Homo erectus. The research team claims it is our nearest evolutionary relative of the human species.
“Our results suggest that the Harbin cranium, or Homo longi, represents a lineage that is the sister group of the H. sapiens lineage. So we say H. longi is phylogenetically closer to H. sapiens than Neanderthals are.” Stringer noted.
