A puzzling one-million-year-old skull may be a hybrid species that can shine a light on the origin of Homo sapiens
Descendant of Dragon Man
In 1989 and 1990, two samples of ancient human-like skulls were unearthed in Yunyang District of Hubei province in Central China. In 2022, a third skull with similar features was found in a nearby area.
The owner of the skull was named Yunxian Man, after the place where it was discovered. This archaeological find continues to baffle scientists because of its strange shape and facial features.
While the age of the skull was assumed to be around 900,000 years old, it is unclear if it belongs to Homo erectus or early Homo sapiens. Others also suggest that it might be related to the elusive Asian lineage called "Dragon Man."
Scientifically known as Homo longi, the Dragon Man refers to an extinct species of archaic human which was identified from a 146,000-year-old skull found in the province of Heilongjiang in China. Some experts believe that Dragon Man is actually the same species as the Denisovans, our "sister species" of humans who once lived alongside Homo sapiens in Eurasia.
It is widely accepted that two archaic human species - Neanderthals and Denisovans - roamed the Earth as distinct groups until around 30,000 years ago. However, it is not easy to place the Yunxian man in a single category.
Tracing the Family Tree
It appears that the Dragon Man also has an intriguing connection to the three skulls unearthed in Yunyang. To verify this conclusion, a team of researchers decided to make a three-dimensional reconstruction of the skull of the Yunxian Man using Yunxian 2, the better-preserved specimen. Then they investigated the shape of the rebuilt skull to see how it resembles the other members of the Homo family.
The full 3D model of the skull revealed facial bones of a human but with a flattened cranium, thicker brow bone and boxed eyes of Homo longi. In the paper "The phylogenetic position of the Yunxian cranium elucidates the origin of Dragon Man and the Denisovans," the authors wrote that Yunxian man is chronologically and morphologically close to the last common ancestor of the lineages of Homo sapiens and Homo longi.
Based on the observed physical features of Yunxian Man, researchers assume that it could be a member of the Denisovan family, which originated in Asia around 500,000 years ago. Just like the Denisovans, the Yunxian man had an elongated skull, although there is a speculation that the Dragon Man lineage could also include Denisovans.
After exploring the characteristics of the new skull, it was determined that the traits of Yunxian Man were similar to those found on early modern humans and Dragon Man, a possible indication that it was an offspring of both species.
Both the Dragon Man and the Homo sapiens lineages had deep roots that extend beyond the Middle Pleistocene. Additionally, the basal position of the Yunxian fossil cranium suggests that it is a representation of a population which laid close to the last common ancestor of the two families.
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