‘Dragon Man’ skull could change everything we know about our species’ evolutionary tree

If confirmed, the discovery of “dragon man” in China will change the history of the evolutionary path of humanity and our closest relatives.

Until now, the hominid closest to humans has been unequivocally the Neanderthal. However, the discovery of a huge skull near the Songhua river, in China, could forever dismantle this globally accepted view. Dated ago 146 thousand years, it could be the fraternal line of homo sapiens. Hence the importance of the discovery of the remains of the “Dragon Man”.

Nine species of hominids?

He is known as’phylogenetic scheme‘to a representation in the form of roots which illustrates the evolutionary relationships between different species. Seen in another way, it is a kind of family tree, organizing the generations of species that have a common ancestry. In the case of humans, the closest relative historically close was Neanderthal. Could it be that this design was wrong at first.

The research is being led by Professor Qiang Ji, from Hebei GEO University. The results are so important to the evolutionary history of mankind, which were published in the scientific journal Innovation. From this skull, the foundations of the understanding human evolution they could change forever.

According to Ji, the discoveries of the skull of the “Dragon Man” could modify our conceptions of at the origin of our species. After being cataloged as “Homo”, the researchers they are responsible for determined that it could be “a new and remarkable piece in the world. human evolution puzzle, a fossil that will continue to add important information for many years to come ”.

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A possible paradigm shift

We already knew what he is doing about 100 thousand years, various species of hominids coexisted between Asia, Europe and Africa. Among them were the homo sapiens, NeanderthalsHomo neanderthalensis) and other “close cousins”. However, the presence of the “Dragon Man” had never been recorded, so he had not appeared on the human evolutionary tree.

With the transition of populations and changes in the environment, many of these cash has been lost forever. Science couldn’t study them because there wasn’t enough evidence. However, this skull sheds new light on primitive human life forms in the planet.

The skull reveals a remarkable brain power, which is within the reach of contemporary humans and Neanderthals. This leads scientists to consider that he might be an even closer relative to us than other hominid species. If confirmed, could break with all the information available compared to our own natural History.

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