Posted on 06/25/2021 12:42:51 PM PDT by Red Badger
The fossil may represent a new Homo species that lived more than 146,000 years ago
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A fossil skull nicknamed “Dragon Man” has surfaced in China under mysterious circumstances, with big news for Neandertals. Dragon Man belonged to a previously unrecognized Stone Age species that replaces Neandertals as the closest known relatives of people today, researchers say.
A nearly complete male skull now housed in the Geoscience Museum of Hebei GEO University in Shijiazhuang, China, represents a species dubbed Homo longi by Hebei GEO paleoanthropologist Xijun Ni and his colleagues. The scientists describe the skull, which dates to at least 146,000 years ago, and analyze its position in Homo evolution in three papers published June 25 in The Innovation.
Qiang Ji, a paleontologist also at Hebei GEO, received the skull in 2018 from a farmer who said the fossil had been dug up by a coworker of his grandfather’s in 1933. During bridge construction over a river in Harbin, China, the worker allegedly scooped the skull out of river sediment. Whether or not that story is true, this fossil could help answer questions about a poorly understood period of human evolution.
“The Harbin cranium presents a combination of features setting it apart from other Homo species,” Ji says. The name H. longi derives from a Chinese term for the province where it was found, which translates as “dragon river.” That term inspired the nickname Dragon Man.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
To neanderthals... 🤓
Yes , they disappeared in China while being sent to a US Military base in 1941.
If they’re from China, then it’s a step between the Denisovans, not Neanderthals.
People today carry Neanderthal DNA, so I hope they plan on testing them against this so-called Dragon Man's DNA, if they can extract it. I don't trust China on anything, not even the fossils they dig up.
It was dug up in 1933, and as is the case with superstitious cultures, was regarded as a totem and family heirloom. That's probably where it picked up the "Dragon Man" nickname. It'll be great if DNA can be discerned that isn't merely from the family members who've handled it over the past 88 years.
The First Fossil Hunters:
Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times
by Adrienne Mayor
review by Tim Tokaryk
Ancient historical man is beginning to look like the UN scene {Rush Limbaugh} in Star Wars, A New Hope. 🤔
Everything except the Chin........................
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