‘Dragon Man’ skull may be the first from an enigmatic human cousin
The 146,000-year-old Chinese find is the most complete Denisovan fossil, two studies claim
A nearly complete Chinese skull that dates to at least 146,000 years ago belonged to a member of a poorly understood hominid population called Denisovans, researchers say. Their argument rests on analyses of ancient proteins and DNA.
Q. Fu et al/Cell 2025