The largest human skull that could change the current view of evolution

Science Writing, June 25 (EFE) .- The skull of Harbin, one of the world’s best-preserved human fossils currently being studied, belongs to the genus Homo langi or “Dragon Man”, a new human lineage that Chinese scientists have documented, and it may be our closest relative . Another twist in complex human evolution.

The fossil is the largest known human skull and is 146,000 years old., Which places the central Pleistocene, one of the most energetic periods for the migration of human beings.

Although it was discovered in the 1930s in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China, the skull remained hidden until 2018 (donated by the family of the man who discovered it) until it was donated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

It has now been researched by a Chinese multidisciplinary team and its findings have been published in three articles, which are being published today in The Cell Group’s Innovation magazine.

Scientists have listed fossils as a new human species called Homo langi or “Dragon Man” and they may revolutionize the current view of human evolution.

“The skull distinguishes ancient and derived features from all other homo species,” says Professor of Archeology at Hebei Geo University. Therefore, Quang Ji considered it a new species and decided to baptize it as Homo langi.

According to its authors, the enormous skull may have produced a brain the size comparable to that of modern humans, although it had large and almost square eye sockets, thick eyebrow ridges, a wide mouth, and large teeth.

Scientists believe it was the skull of a man in his 50s who lived as part of a small community in an environment of trees and floodplains, and like the Sabeans they hunted, collected fruits and vegetables, and explains that “perhaps they caught fish” Prof. Jijun Ni.

Due to its large size and location of the skull, researchers say that Homo lanky spread throughout Asia, adapting to harsh conditions, and may have encountered Homo sapiens during the Central Pleistocene.

The authors come to the second conclusion and suggest that Homo langi is one of our closest human relatives, more so than the Neanderthals.

“Our discovery is that the new lineage we have identified and Homo langi are the true sister group of the Sabians,” he says.

Furthermore, the reconstruction of the human tree by these writers suggests that the common ancestor we share with the Neanderthals still existed long ago.

“The time difference between H. sapiens and Neanderthals may be deeper in evolutionary history than is generally believed to be more than a million years old. In fact, we may have moved away from Neanderthals about 400,000 years earlier than scientists thought,” Ni warns.

According to the authors, Homo lanky was a strong and powerful man, and their possible connections with the Homo sapiens may have shaped our history.

“Taken together, Harbin’s skull provides us with additional evidence for understanding Homo diversity and the evolutionary relationships between these various Homo species and peoples. We have traced our long-lost sister lineage,” Ni concludes.

Antonio Rosas, a paleontrologist at the High Council for Scientific Research, agrees that analyzes of these human fossils “could strongly influence future research on human evolution” because they “have a revolutionary point, as they have implications for many important aspects of the evolution of the species homo”, EFE

Although the Spanish researcher is concerned that the authors have given too much weight to certain facial features that are thought to have been inherited in Paleontology, he acknowledges that the morphological features of the face are actually “primitive traits inherited from a common ancestor”. . ”

“Undoubtedly, the discussion is presented,” concludes the CSIC Paleo Andrologist.