Foreign media: Chinese scientists and the Swedish Nobel Prize-winning medical team announced that they successfully extracted DNA from the Harbin skull (the "Dragon Man", formerly known as Homo sapiens dragon species), confirming it to be a Denisovan, rather than a new human species.
The Denisovans were discovered through DNA from bone fragments in a Russian cave. They are sister species to the Neanderthals and once interbred with modern humans and Neanderthals. Asians now carry a small amount of Denisovan genes, which help them adapt to high altitudes and extremely cold environments.
The study shows that the Denisovans had robust faces, large teeth, prominent brow ridges, a brain capacity of 1400 cubic centimeters, and lived in various environments in Asia. The skull was hidden in a well by Chinese workers in 1933, handed over to scientists in 2018, and dated to 146,000 years ago in 2021. This time, mitochondrial DNA and 95 types of proteins were extracted from dental calculus, setting a record for the extraction of single individual fossil proteins, confirming it to be a Denisovan and possibly related to other fossils in Asia.
This breakthrough also overturns the hypothesis of "new species" in human evolution, emphasizing frequent interbreeding between Denisovans, Neanderthals, and modern humans. The research also found that Denisovans may have been widely distributed across Asia, including areas such as Taiwan and eastern China.
This discovery deepens understanding of the third ancient human branch and promotes a re-examination of the classification of fossils in places like Hualong Cave and Dalili.
Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1835322421841091/
Disclaimer: This article solely represents the views of the author.