Behold the Dragon Man – not a dragon, a Denisovan. Source: CC BY 4.0

True Identity of ‘Dragon Man’ Confirmed: Northeast China Denisovan

At long last, scientists have confirmed the true identity of the remarkably intact skull nicknamed “Dragon Man.” Unearthed in Harbin, Northeast China, the skull was initially proposed as a separate species back in 2021. Recent findings now reveal that the skull is part of the extinct Denisovan lineage, a group of prehistoric hominids closely related

The four east Asian homo species in the reclassification and their locations. Homo juluensis on the left is new. Source: C Bae and X Wu; Nature Communications.

Homo Juluensis: “Bigheads” Join the Growing List of Proto-Humans

Something new in the field of paleoanthropology: researchers have discovered a new species of human. Well, not human exactly but a close relative of Homo sapiens, which has been named Homo juluensis (Homo “bighead” and you can all stop sniggering). Neither is it really something new. The species being a part of that mysterious mish-mash