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Skull found in China represents a new human species

  • Posted By
    10Pointer
  • Categories
    Science & Technology
  • Published
    29th Jun, 2021

Context

Scientists announced on June 25 that a skull discovered in northeast China represents a newly discovered human species.

  • They have named it Homo longi, or “Dragon Man”.

About the key findings of the discovered material

  • The specimen has been named Homo longi, or “Dragon Man”.
    • The name is derived from Long Jiang, which means “Dragon River”.
  • It belongs to the Harbin group.
  • The skull dates back at least 146,000 years, placing it in the Middle Pleistocene.
  • The Harbin cranium was discovered in the 1930s in the city of the same name in Heilongjiang Province but was reportedly hidden in a well for 85 years to protect it from the Japanese Army.
    • It was later handed over to study in 2018.
  • Scientists have proposed that it is our closest relative even nearer than the Neanderthals.
  • Features:It could hold a brain comparable in size to that of modern humans.
    • It has larger eye sockets, thick brow ridges, a wide mouth, and oversized teeth.
    • The team believes the cranium belonged to a male, around 50 years old, living in a forested floodplain.
    • This population would have been hunter-gatherers, living off the land.
    • longi may have been well adapted for harsh environments and would have been able to disperse throughout Asia.
  • Significance of finding: There are also many answered questions about their culture and technology level, because of a lack of archaeological material.
    • The finding could still reshape our understanding of human evolution.
    • It establishes a third human lineage in East Asia with its evolutionary history.
    • It shows how important the region was for human evolution.

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