‘Dragon Man’: New type of ancient human discovered in China

As per scientists, the skull belongs to a large-brained male in his 50s with deep-set eyes and thick brow ridges.

The face was wide and had flat, low cheekbones that made him resemble modern people more closely than other extinct members of the human family tree.

The team of researchers has claimed that it is our closest evolutionary relative among known species of ancient human, such as Neanderthals and Homo erectus.

The scientists gave it a name, ‘Dragon Man’ as the specimen represents a human group that lived in East Asia at least 146,000 years ago.

The name is derived from Long Jiang, which literally meaning ‘Dragon River’.

Earlier, it was found at Harbin, north-east China, in 1933, but only came to the attention of scientists more recently.

The researchers claim the form of ancient human on the far left may have evolved into the relatively modern Dragon Man on the far right over millions of years

The researchers say the discovery has the potential to rewrite the story of human evolution.

They have assigned the specimen to a new species, Homo longi, from the Chinese word "long", meaning dragon.

The skull is huge compared with the average skulls belonging to other human species. Its brain was comparable in size to those from our species.

More than 100,000 years ago, several human species coexisted across Eurasia and Africa, including, Neanderthals and Denisovans. The ‘Dragon man’ might now be added to that list.