Using cutting-edge DNA analysis, scientists have uncovered the true identity of an ancient human relative nicknamed the "Dragon Man."

The mystery began with a giant, human-like skull discovered by a Chinese laborer in Harbin City, China, in 1933. In 2018, the man's family recovered the Harbin skull, which the laborer had buried in a well, and donated it to science. The enormous cranium features a long, low braincase and a massive brow ridge, along with a broad nose and big eyes. Based on the skull's unusual shape and size, experts gave it a new species name — Homo longi, or "Dragon Man" — in 2021.
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Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is passed from mother to child, recovered from the skull showed that Dragon Man was related to an early Denisovan group that lived in Siberia from around 217,000 to 106,000 years ago, which means that Denisovans inhabited a large geographical range in Asia, the researchers wrote in the Cell study.

Additionally, the researchers investigated the skull's "proteome," the set of proteins and amino acids found in the skeleton. By comparing the proteome to those of contemporary humans, Neanderthals, Denisovans and nonhuman primates, the researchers found a clear connection between the Harbin cranium and early Denisovans, they wrote in the Science study.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/1st-ever-denisovan-skull-identified-150241055.html

Denisovan mitochondrial DNA from dental calculus of the >146,000-year-old Harbin cranium

Denisovans have yet to be directly associated with a hominin cranium, limiting our understanding of their morphology and geographical distribution. We have attempted to retrieve DNA from a nearly complete Middle Pleistocene cranium from Harbin (>146 ka), northeastern China. Although no DNA could be retrieved from a tooth or the petrous bone, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) could be isolated from dental calculus. The mtDNA falls within Denisovan mtDNA variation and is related to an mtDNA branch carried by early Denisovan individuals in southern Siberia, previously observed in Denisova Cave. This suggests that Denisovans inhabited a large geographical range in Asia in the Middle Pleistocene. The association of Denisovan mtDNA with the Harbin cranium allows a better understanding of the morphological relationships between Denisovans and other East Asian Middle Pleistocene fossils. Furthermore, the retrieval of host DNA from dental calculus opens new possibilities for genetic research on Middle Pleistocene hominins.

https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(25)00627-0

Denisovans are a hominin group primarily known through genomes or proteins, but the precise morphological features of Denisovans remain elusive due to the fragmentary nature of discovered fossils. Here we report ninety-five endogenous proteins retrieved from a nearly complete cranium from Harbin, China, dating to at least 146,000 years ago and previous assigned to a new species, Homo longi. This individual has three Denisovan derived amino acid variants and clusters with Denisova 3, suggesting the Harbin individual belongs to a Denisovan population. This study fills the gap between morphological and molecular evidence, enhancing our understanding of Denisovans’ spatiotemporal dispersal and evolutionary history.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adu9677