The Neanderthal was our closest relative, we thought. We know some humans carry Neanderthal DNA, and we might even discern Neanderthal features in modern humans, or in ourselves: a low forehead, a large nose, or a wide mouth. But there may be a species that is closer still. Meet Dragon Man, from China: an unknown human species which, according to the scientists who are examining it, is closer to us than the Neanderthals.
The evidence for our new relative is scant, to say the least. We know this new human species only from one single skull discovery. On the other hand, the skull is the largest and best-preserved example of a prehistoric human that scientists have ever found. The wide oblong skull lacks its lower jaw and includes just one single tooth, but apart from that, our new relative’s skull is completely intact.
The skull was discovered in the city of Harbin in north-east China, and it has a unique mixture of modern and primitive features, so that the Chinese scientists believe it belongs to an unknown human species. They have named it , or ‘Dragon Man’, after the place of discovery in the province of Heilongjiang, which means ‘Black Dragon River’, the Mandarin name for the river better known in the West as the river Amur. A computer analysis of on the human family tree – and closer than the Neanderthals.
