The Identity of the Dragon Man

FINALLY, AFTER YEARS OF STUDY, THE REAL identity of the Dragon Man has been discovered.

- Michael Natale

That might sound like something shouted by the villain in a comic book, but in fact, it is a very real archaeological breakthrough one that helps reshape our understanding of the early hominins who once roamed the earth and whose DNA can still be found mixed in with our own.

A skull discovered in northern China had, for several years, been suggested to belong to a previously undiscovered species, which had been labeled Homo longi (named for the discovery's proximity to the Long Jiang, or Long River). As the river's Chinese name 龙江 literally translates to “Dragon River,” they nicknamed the discovered skull “Dragon Man.”

The species that skull belongs to has now been properly identified, and the Dragon Man has officially been determined to be the first-ever example of the extinct Denisovan lineage.