June
19
/ 2025
For over a decade, the Denisovans were anthropology's most mysterious cousins — a ghost line whose existence was known almost solely from ancient DNA, a child's pinky bone, and a rumor of genes that still float through human populations. That's all now changed. In two mind-blowing new papers out in Science and Cell, researchers have established that the giant skull excavated in Harbin, China — which has been popularly known as " Dragon Man" and was originally dubbed Homo longi — belonged to a Denisovan. Due to a few recalcitrant specks of fossilized dental plaque, scientists can now at last declare: this is what a Denisovan was like! A Skull in a Well: Where it All Began Dragon Man's tale
