"Dragon Man": Scientists Say New Human Species Is Our Closest Ancestor

The Scientists have named human species they have named Homo longi, or "Dragon Man" -- and they say the lineage should replace Neanderthals as our closest relatives.

Scientists announced Friday that a skull discovered in northeast China represents a newly discovered human species they have named Homo longi, or "Dragon Man" -- and they say the lineage should replace Neanderthals as our closest relatives. The Harbin cranium was discovered in the 1930s in the city of the same name in Heilongjiang province, but was reportedly hidden in a well for 85 years to protect it from the Japanese army. It was later dug up and handed to Ji Qiang, a professor at Hebei GEO University, in 2018. "On our analyses, the Harbin group is more closely linked to H. sapiens than the Neanderthals are -- that is, Harbin shared a more recent common ancestor with us than the Neanderthals did," co-author Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum, London told AFP.