US EditionA Skull Found in a Well Defied Classification. Now It Could Help Unravel an Evolutionary Mystery
- Researchers identified the nearly complete Harbin skull found in 1933 in northeast China as belonging to Denisovans in studies published on June 18, 2025.
- Scientists struggled to sequence ancient DNA from the skull but succeeded in extracting 95 protein fragments, four of which showed Denisovan-specific variations.
- The skull, named Homo longi or Dragon Man in 2021, is at least 146,000 years old and offers the first complete morphological blueprint for Denisovans spread across Asia.
- Qiaomei Fu highlighted that the Harbin cranium marks the earliest fossil skull linked to Denisovans, while Chris Stringer confirmed that the designation Homo longi is fitting for this species.
- This discovery resolves longstanding uncertainty about Denisovan appearance and suggests further ancient DNA and protein analyses could reveal more about human evolution in Asia.
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Paleontology: The fact that analyzable proteins have been extracted from the bones is “a tour de force” for a find that is 150,000 years old. Finally, there is a…
·Netherlands
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DNA and protein analysis of a 146,000-year-old skull shows for the first time what the face of this species looked like, which occupied much of Asia and left its genes in today's humans.
·Spain
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Leaning Left3Leaning Right0Center10Last UpdatedBias Distribution77% Center
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