Human evolution: Dragon man may be Denisovan (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, July 01, 2021, 21:16 (1027 days ago) @ David Turell

I've now seen two articles that make the claim, as an educated guess:

Social interactions among animals mediate essential behaviours, including mating, nurturing,

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/373/6550/11.full

"Summary
Almost 90 years after a Chinese bridge builder discovered a remarkably complete human skull and hid it in a well, Chinese scientists are now introducing it as "Dragon Man," the newest member of the human family, who lived more than 146,000 years ago. In three papers in the year-old journal The Innovation, paleontologist Qiang Ji of Hebei GEO University and his team describe the skull and argue it represents a new species that is a sister group to Homo sapiens, even closer kin to us than were the Neanderthals. Other researchers question that idea. But they suspect the large skull, which the team calls H. longi (long means dragon in Mandarin), has an equally exciting identity: They think it may be the long-sought skull of a Denisovan, an elusive human relative from Asia known chiefly from DNA."

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"Instead, she and others say, Dragon Man is probably a Denisovan, an extinct cousin of the Neanderthals. To date, the only clearly identified Denisovan fossils are a pinkie bone, teeth, and a bit of skull bone from Denisova Cave in Siberia, where Denisovans lived off and on from 280,000 to 55,000 years ago. But the enormous, “weird” molar from the new skull fits with the molars from Denisova, says Bence Viola, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Toronto, who analyzed the Denisova fossils with Hublin. The link with the Xiahe Cave jawbone, if correct, would strengthen the case, as a protein from that fossil as well as ancient DNA in the sediments of the cave strongly suggest it was a Denisovan.

"The authors concede that their critics have a point. “I think it probably is a Denisovan,” says Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at London's Natural History Museum and co-author on two of the papers. DNA analysis of the new skull could resolve the issue. But the team says it does not want to risk destroying the tooth or other bone to get DNA or protein.

"If the new skull is indeed from a Denisovan, the team's claim to have found the closest human ancestor would crumble. DNA studies have established that Denisovans and Neanderthals formed sister groups, more closely related to each other than to H. sapiens. But Dragon Man would still be a landmark fossil. Viola hopes researchers can analyze its DNA, so that “I can finally look into the eyes of a Denisovan.'”

Comment: Exciting news if true. Hope for DNA recovery.