A 146,000-year-old skull known as the 'dragon man', thought to be the sole representative of an ancient human species, actually belongs to a larger group of our extinct relatives, the Denisovans, two new papers claim. The 'dragon man' skull was discovered in the 1930s by a construction worker who was erecting a bridge over the Songhua River in Harbin, China, while the region was under Japanese occupation. The province is known as Longjiang, meaning 'dragon river', hence the skull's nickname.

Who Are The Denisovans? The Denisovans are an extinct relative of modern humans that also share a common ancestor with Neanderthals. Little is known about this category of hominin, which is currently considered to be either a subspecies (Homo sapiens denisova) or a distinct species altogether (Homo denisova). Remains of several distinct individuals have been uncovered in a Siberian cave named Denisova in recent years, beginning with the discovery of a single fingerbone in 2008. Source: https://www.sciencealert.com/denisovans