https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/newly-discovered-skulls-in-china-could-bridge-the-gap-in-human-evolution/ar-BB1mOfZZ
In 1989 and 1990, two million-year-old skulls
were discovered in the Yunyang district of
Hubei province in central China. These skulls
belonged to unidentified human ancestors. A
third similar skull was found nearby in 2022,
adding to the mystery about their origins.
Questions arose about whether the skulls
belonged to Homo erectus, early Homo sapiens,
or were linked to the enigmatic Asian "Dragon
Man," challenging scientists to find answers.
However, new research offers some clarity on
these discoveries.
A research team presented a thesis in a new,
yet-to-be-reviewed paper, suggesting that
one of the discovered skulls, which they
managed to reconstruct, might be close to the
last common ancestor of Homo sapiens and the
Dragon Man lineage, as reported by IFLScience.
The site also reminds us that Dragon Man, also
known as Homo longi, is an extinct species of
archaic human whose well-preserved skull,
dating back 146,000 years, was discovered in
Heilongjiang province, China in 1933.
...
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.16.594603v1
Posted May 17, 2024.
The phylogenetic position of the Yunxian
cranium elucidates the origin of Dragon Man
and the Denisovans
Abstract
Diverse Middle Pleistocene forms of Homo
coexisted in Africa, Europe, and Asia. It is
very controversial whether these fossil
humans represent different species or
lineages. The ∼1 Ma old Yunxian 2 fossil
from China is crucial for understanding the
cladogenesis of Homo and the origin of Homo
sapiens. Here, we restored and reconstructed
the distorted Yunxian 2 cranium using new
technology. The results show that this
cranium displays mosaic features of
plesiomorphy and apomorphy. Phylogenetic
analyses and Bayesian tip-dating including
the reconstructed Yunxian 2 suggest that it
is an early member of the Asian ‘Dragon Man’
lineage, which probably includes the
Denisovans, and is the sister group of the
Homo sapiens lineage. Both the H. sapiens
and Dragon Man lineages had deep roots
extending beyond the Middle Pleistocene,
and the basal position of the Yunxian fossil
cranium suggests it represents a population
lying close to the last common ancestor of
the two lineages.
One-Sentence Summary The newly-reconstructed
Yunxian 2 cranium represents a basal member of the
Dragon Man and Denisovan lineage, and probably lies
close to the last common ancestor of that lineage
and the lineage of H. sapiens.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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