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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.

Our missing-link ancestor is being assigned a new species name: Homo longi, from the Chinese word "long", meaning dragon.

Researchers' analysis suggests that it is more closely related to Homo sapiens than to Neanderthals.

Dragon Man is a Breakthrough discovery 

"In terms of fossils in the last million years, this is one of the most important yet discovered," Stringer told BBC News.

"What you have here is a separate branch of humanity that is not on its way to becoming Homo sapiens (our species), but represents a long-separate lineage which evolved in the region for several hundred thousand years and eventually went extinct."

Dragon Man's brain size appears to be the same as the average human. And the skull is huge. An analysis of the skull has been published in the journal The Innovation.

According to artist reconstruction, Dragon Man would have been strong, powerfully built, and tough. He had large square-shaped eyes, a thick brow that protruded, and a very wide mouth, with oversized teeth.

Prof Qiang Ji, claims the skull is perhaps the most complete early human skull discovered.

"It has a mosaic combination of primitive and (more modern features), setting itself apart from all the other species of human," the researcher explained.

"We found our long-lost sister lineage," said Xijun Ni, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Hebei GEO University in Shijiazhuang.

The research team believes the skull represents an evolution of the human species.

"The results will spark a lot of debate and I am quite sure that a lot of people will disagree with us," Prof Ni said.

"But that is science and it is because we disagree that science progresses.