A skull found in China – the "Dragon man", a new species of early humans?

 

Recently CNN.co.jp reported the following:

Source: CNN

Source: CNN

中国で頭骨発見の「ドラゴンマン」、初期人類の新種か

2021.06.26 Sat posted at 17:45 JST

 （ＣＮＮ） 中国北東部ハルビンの井戸に８０年以上隠されていた頭骨について、初期人類の新種に当たる可能性があることが分かった。２５日付の米科学誌ジ・イノベーションに論文が掲載された。研究者らは頭骨の主を「ドラゴンマン」と呼んでいる。

頭骨は保存状態が良く、年代は１３万８０００～３０万９０００年前にさかのぼる。太い鼻や低い位置にある眉毛といった原始的な特徴と、平らできゃしゃな頬骨を含め、よりホモサピエンスに近い特徴を併せ持つ。

研究チームによると、頭骨の主はおそらく５０歳の男性で、極めて幅の広い顔、大きな眼窩（がんか）に入った深い眼球、大きな歯を持っていた可能性がある。脳のサイズは現生人類と同程度とみられるという。

英ロンドン自然史博物館で人類の起源の研究を率いる論文の共著者、クリス・ストリンガー氏は「ハルビンの頭骨は私がこの５０年で見た中で最も重要な化石だ。人類史を語る上で東アジアや中国がいかに重要かを示している」と語る。

研究者はこのホミニン（ヒト属）を、頭骨が見つかった黒竜江省にちなみ「ホモ・ロンギ（竜人）」と名付けた。

イノベーション誌に掲載された論文によると、頭骨は１９３３年、ハルビンを流れる松花江に橋が建設された際に中国人男性が見つけた。当時、中国のこの地域は日本の占領下にあり、発見者の男性は頭骨を持ち帰ると、井戸の底に保管した。

「彼は頭骨を日本人の上司に渡すのではなく、廃井戸の中に隠した。これは宝物を隠す中国の伝統的な方法だった」という。

頭骨の存在は数十年間、研究者に知られないままになっていたが、男性の死の前に子孫がこれを知り、２０１８年に井戸から回収。研究チームの１人が頭骨のことを聞きつけ、地元の河北地質大学に寄付するよう男性の家族を説得した。

Translation

2021.06.26 Sat posted at 17:45 JST

 (CNN) A skull which had been hidden in a well for more than 80 years in Harbin in northeastern China was found to be a new species of early humans. A paper was published on the 25th in an American scientific journal The Innovation. Researchers called the skull the "Dragon man."

The skull was well preserved and dated back 138,000 to 309,000 years. It had primitive features such as a fat nose and low eyebrows, and  a flat sand slim cheekbone, features that were closer to Homo sapiens.

According to the research team, the main skull was probably a 50-year-old man with a very wide face, a deep eyeball in a large eye socket and had large teeth. The size of his brain seemed to be about the same as that of modern humans.

As the co-author of this treatise, Chris Stringer at the Natural History Museum in London led a study of human origin said "The skull of Harbin is the most important fossil I've seen in the last 50 years, it shows how important East Asia and China are in talking about human history."

Researchers named this hominin (Homo) "Homo Longi (Dragon man)” after the Heilongjiang province where the skull was found.

According to the paper published in The Innovation, the skull was found by a Chinese male in 1933 when a bridge was built on the Songhua River that flowed through Harbin. At that time, this region of China was under Japanese occupation, and this male discoverer brought home the skull and kept it at the bottom of a well.

It was said that "he hid his skull in an abandoned well instead of giving it to his Japanese boss. This was a traditional Chinese way of hiding treasure".

The existence of the skull remained unknown to researchers for decades, yet descendants learned about it before the death of the man and recovered it from the well in 2018. A person of the research team heard about the skull and persuaded the male family to donate it to the local Hebei Geological University.

              So, this is an important scientific finding on human history. This "Dragon man" could be a new species of early humans in Asia.