Dragon Man in China: Remains of new species of humans found? If researchers from China are to be believed, an ancient skull that could belong to a entire distinct species of humans has been found. According to a report in IE, the skull, estimated to be more than 1.46 lakh years old, was found in the Songhua river in Harbin city of north-east China. The findings of the group have been published in ‘The Innovation’ journal, the report added. The species is getting referred to as the “Dragon Man” at the moment.
However, this is not the only analysis that has claimed to come across an unknown ancient human species. Last week, researchers in Israel mentioned that they had identified a new variety of ancient human that had not been identified just before, and this species, they mentioned, have been referred to as ‘Nesher Ramla Homo’. The report added that this species of humans was amongst the quite a few species of humans that co-existed practically 1 lakh years ago in Africa, Asia and Europe, such as Home Sapiens, Neanderthals, and Denisovans.
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While Homo Sapiens are the species group that all the current humans belong to that had evolved about 3 lakh years ago in Africa, Neanderthals are believed to be the closest relatives to humans that lived in between 4 lakh to 40,000 years ago, in Europe as effectively as central to southwest Asia. The findings from the Israeli web-site, which the researchers are dating back to in between 1.4 lakh and 1.2 lakh years ago, have been published in ‘Science’ journal. The group also mentioned that the Nesher Ramla Homo had been capable to master technologies which had so far been linked only with Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens – they employed wood as fuel, and also cooked and roasted meat. They have been also capable of sustaining fires.
As per the report, these findings are of significance due to the reality that they lend backing to the premise that cultural interactions took location in between lineages of distinct species of humans.
While Homo Sapiens, or modern day humans, are the only ones in existence presently, there are quite a few species of humans to have existed. So a lot so, that scientists differ on the quantity of human species. However, largely, at least 21 species of humans are accepted by most, the report added.
Till now, it is believed that the oldest human species to have existed was the Sahelanthropus tchadensis, which probably lived in between 7 to 6 million years ago, when Orrorin tugenensis are believed to have lived in between 6.2 to 5.8 million years ago. 5.8 to 5.2 million years ago, the Ardipithecus kadabba are believed to have lived, when 4.4 million years ago, Ardipithecus ramidus existed. Apart from this, Australopithecus anamensis, Australopithecus afarensis, Kenyanthropus platyops, Australopithecus africanus, Paranthropus aethiopicus, Australopithecus garhi, Australopithecus garhi, Paranthropus robustus, Australopithecus sediba, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo floresiensis, Homo heidelbergensis, and Homo neanderthalensis are believed to have existed in distinct places in between 4.2 million and 40,000 years ago. Lastly, Homo Sapiens are the species that are discovered across the world today.
The Dragon Man, or Homo longi, is the name offered to the cranium – the component of the skull that encloses the brain – that has been found in China, dubbed immediately after the Long Jiang or Dragon river in the province exactly where Harbin city is. The report mentioned that the skull, which was buried in sediments for thousands of years, was apparently found way back in 1933. The practically comprehensive remains of the skull have a distinctive shape, as per the UK’s Natural History Museum, which is why some researchers are batting for it to be declared a component of a new species of genus Homo. Another considerable aspect of this skull is that it has a considerable brain capacity, which can be compared to that of Homo Sapiens and of Neanderthals.
The discovery is important mainly because if Dragon Man is certainly a new species of humans to be discovered, then it may possibly be capable to fill the gap in between Homo Erectus and Homo Sapiens, providing a greater image of the evolution of our species. So far, there is not a lot consensus amongst the scientific neighborhood about the hyperlinks in between the distinct species of humans and the species which we can take into consideration to be our quick ancestors.