A skull hidden for nearly a century may belong to an elusive type of ancient human, or a brand new species.
In late 2017, paleontologist Qiang Ji showed his anthropologist colleague Xijun Ni photos of a human skull with a hefty browridge. Besides missing all but one tooth, the cranium appeared remarkably intact — making it one of the best-preserved skulls from any human ancestor or relative. “I was shocked,” recalls Ni. “I said, ‘This is the most important discovery, [more] than any of your dinosaurs.
Over the next three years, Ni and collaborator Chris Stringer tried to decipher the fossil. Normally they’d date it via geologic materials from its burial spot, but that precise location was unclear. So the scientists performed chemical analysis of powder drilled from the fossil, along with sediment lodged in the nasal cavity. By comparing these values to sediments and fossils collected near the bridge, they dated it between 309,000 and 146,000 years old.
The team, which included scientists at the Australian National University and the London Natural History Museum, detailed their findings in three June papers in The Innovation. Since then, anthropologists have buzzed over another possibility: Dragon Man may be Denisovan, a name given to ancient DNA previously extracted from isolated teeth and bone bits. These measly fossils leave the Denisovan’s physical appearance an enigma.
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