Three articles back to back: A mysterious "dragon man" found in Heilongjiang

A large fossil skull found in China may belong to one of our mysterious distant relatives, Denisovan, and this may give us the first sight of the face of Denisovan

The Harbin skull was discovered in the mysterious environment of Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China in the 1930s

"This is really an amazing discovery

"This is really the largest human skull I have ever seen," said Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London, who is also a member of the research team

Researchers estimate that the skull belonged to a 50-year-old man who died between 146,000 and 296,000 years ago

Stringer said: "Its combination of functions is very interesting

One possibility is that the fossils in Harbin are Denisovans

In recent years, people have discovered some Denisovan fossils, including a mandible from Tibet that is at least 160,000 years old, that is, the Xiahe mandible

When a team led by Xijun Ni constructed the genealogy and established the ancestral lineage of the Harbin fossil, they discovered that it is most closely related to the Xiahe mandible based on the physical characteristics of the fossil

Shara Bailey of New York University was not involved in the study.

John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison agrees

The key is whether DNA can be extracted from the skull in Harbin, which may be realized in the future

Stringer said: "I think the skull found in Harbin is probably the most complete Denisovan skull

Although people are excited that the Harbin skull may be a Denisovan, they are not so enthusiastic about the decision to officially name it a new species

Many researchers are reluctant to name the new human species for several reasons, including DNA evidence that the "species" includes Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, and he is a hybrid

Sheela Athreya of Texas A&M University said: "I do believe that the one analysis method they used is not sufficient to indicate that there is a new species

Original Search:
1.
Late Middle Pleistocene Harbin cranium represents a new Homo species
2.
Massive cranium from Harbin in northeastern China establishes a new Middle Pleistocene human lineage

3.
Geochemical provenancing and direct dating of the Harbin archaic human cranium