New human species 'Dragon man' may be our closest relative
The skull of an ancient human discovered in northeastern China may belong to a previously unknown human species that scientists have dubbed Homo longi , or "Dragon Man," three new studies report. Dragon man's well-preserved skull is the largest Homo skull on record. An analysis of the cranium revealed that Dragon man might be the closest-known related species to Homo sapiens , even closer than Neanderthals , who were long thought to be our closest relation, the study found. "I was surprised by the resulting phylogeny [family-tree analysis] linking it to H. sapiens rather than H. neanderthalensis , but our conclusions are based on the analysis of large amounts of data," study co-researcher Chris Stringer, a research leader at the Center for Human Evolution Research at the Natural History Museum in London, told Live Science in an email. However, this interpretation is debatable; it seems possible that this skull belongs to the mysterious Denisovan human li...