Dragon Man Promoted to Human

‘Dragon Man’ skull “isn’t what we
thought” – A case illustrating confu-
sion in the field of paleoanthropology.

 

by Jerry Bergman, PhD

I have attempted to follow the various claims made by paleoanthropologists for the last 40 years.
This has now become increasingly difficult, largely because the fossil claims and counterclaims related
to human evolution have grown exponentially in the past three decades.

According to the Smithsonian Institution’s ‘Human Origins Program,’ scientists have discovered the fossilized remains of over 6,000 individual early humans plus several hundred thousand skeletal remains, including skeletal fragments and parts, such as isolated teeth. Paleoanthropologists  also have uncovered 200 largely complete skulls and several close-to-complete skeletons.[1] Instead of producing a detailed linear progression from a claimed common ancestor to modern humans, what has emerged is several different primate families as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. From the Smithsonian Institution’s website[2] showing, not the evolution of pre-humans to modern
humans, but a great variety of primates. As is now clear, the Neanderthals belong in the human family.[3]

As the Smithsonian Museum’s report explained,

People used to think that there was a single line of human species, with one evolving after the other in an inevitable march toward modern humans, we now know that this is not the case. Like most other mammals, we are part of a large and diverse family tree.[4]

For instance, a canine expert could line up dog fossils from the smallest known dog, a Chihuahua, to a Great Dane, and easily conclude that this series proves the evolution of dogs, but he would be wrong. In reality, all we have is a large variety of dogs, not macroevolution of one kind of organism into a different kind of creature. Likewise, evolutionists line up skeletons of primates in an attempt to prove human evolution. With more primate discoveries though, it is now clear that, like the dog example, all we have is a wide variety of primates, and not a progression as shown in figure 1.

A well-documented problem is how new fossil discoveries are often given a new species name to honor the discoverer or the location of the find.[5] Then, in time, it is often determined that the new find was simply a member of a pre-existing species family. This is exactly what happened in the ‘Dragon Man’ case.

The History of the Find

In 1933, a human-like skull was discovered in a riverbed by a Chinese laborer in Harbin City, China. Due to the tumultuous wartime atmosphere in China as a result of the Japanese invasion, the person who found the skull hid it in a well. In 2018, before his death, the third generation of the finder’s family learned about the skull and reclaimed it. Then a full 85 years after it was first discovered, the skull was given to paleoanthropologists to study. This creates a handicap because the conditions of its finding (its provenance) was not verified by trained paleontologists.

Ed. note: Without knowing where it was found, in what condition, and what happened to it in the last 92 years, the skull leaves open questions of distortion, disease, malformation, or other influences on its condition. In addition, the persistence of mitochondrial DNA sets limits on the date.

The cranium featured a long, low brain case, a massive brow ridge, and a broad nose and big eyes (see Figure 2). Based on the skull’s unusual shape and size, in 2021, it was given the species name Homo longi, meaning “Dragon Man” in English.[6] Further evaluation, plus concerns that it was not a new species, recently motivated further DNA evaluation of the skull. The result of the evaluation proved that it was not a new species, but was Denisovan. [7] The name Denisovan came from the Denisova Cave in Siberia, where other skeletal fragments were first discovered.

The History of DNA Testing Attempts

Scientist’s first attempts to retrieve tissue with DNA from the skull bones and teeth failed. However, they were later able to recover mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), from plaque that had hardened on the skull’s teeth and in proteins from an inner ear bone. The analysis of these samples determined it was not a Homo longi, but was related to a Denisovan that lived far away in Siberia. This proved that Denisovans inhabited a much larger geographical range in Asia than previously believed.[8] The Smithsonian concluded that Denisovan

hominins were so similar to us that they interbred with humans for thousands of years when the three overlapped in time and space in certain areas. Many people today still carry important genetic material from these cousins of ours — meaning that, in a sense, they never completely went extinct.[9]

We also know now that Denisovans and Neanderthals were distinct people groups, but closely related.[10] Denisovans, known primarily from fossils in Siberia, had wider skulls, stronger jaws, and larger teeth than Neanderthals. Neanderthals lived in Europe and Western Asia. Both interbred with early modern humans, leaving traces of their DNA in present-day populations.[11] They are both, therefore, members of the human family.

The Dating Concern

Accurate dating of very old fossils is challenging, primarily because of the difficulty of retrieving viable DNA from the Denisovan group, a group that scientists claim lived in Siberia from about 217,000 to 106,000 years ago.[12] I am aware that, if conditions are right, claims are made that DNA is viable for many thousands of years. But my concern stems from the fact that some experts who study ancient DNA are skeptical of such old-Earth claims—with good reason—noting that they usually turn out to be the product of lab contamination. Other scientists studying bird bones have estimated that,

under ideal conditions, DNA has a half-life of approximately 521 years… amber does not actually do a good job of keeping DNA fresh. While the fossilized tree sap can preserve insect skeletons for tens of millions of years, the DNA inside the insects breaks down very rapidly. When the organism dies, enzymes are released that begin breaking down the DNA almost immediately. Similarly, Egyptian mummies may look well-preserved—many of the proteins in their hair and muscles are intact—but their DNA has typically decayed rapidly in the heat.[13]

If the Denisovans lived around 4,000 years ago among early post-Flood populations, the DNA findings are more believable and could, therefore, be accepted with greater certainty.

Conclusion

The “isn’t what we thought it was ” phrase is something we often hear in evolutionary science and especially in paleontology. Evolutionists  often jump to hasty conclusions and then have to retract their claims when more information is uncovered. The new find is often determined to be a member of a pre-existing species family as illustrated in figure 1. This is exactly what has happened in the ‘Dragon Man’ case.

References

[1] Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, “What does it mean to be human,” https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils, 3 January 2024.

[2] https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-family-tree.

[3] Sample, Ian, “Massive human head in Chinese well forces scientists to rethink evolution,” The Guardian, 25 June 2021.

[4] Smithsonian Museum, 2024.

[5] Higgs, Eleanor. “So, you’ve discovered a new species, Can you name it anything you want?,” IFL Science, https://www.iflscience.com/so-youve-discovered-a-new-species-can-you-name-it-anything-you-want-70413, 25 August 2023.

[6] Chen, F.; Welker, F.; Shen, C.-C.; et al. (2019). “A late Middle Pleistocene Denisovan mandible from the Tibetan Plateau” ). Nature. 569 (7756): 409–412.

[7] Marshall, Michael. 2925, We finally know what the face of a Denisovan looked like. New Scientist. June 18.

[8] Fu et al., 2025, Denisovan mitochondrial DNA from dental calculus of the >146,000-year-old Harbin cranium. Cell 188, 1–8. July 24, 2025

[9] Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils.

[10] Chris B. Stringer and Ian Barnes. Deciphering the Denisovans PNAS 15542–15543 | PNAS | December 22, 2015 | 112(5). 15542–15543

[11] Learn, Joshua Rapp, “How do you tell a Neanderthal from a Denisovan?,” https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/how-do-you-tell-a-neanderthal-from-a-denisovan, 30 November 2021. (Our partial ancestors differed a little in appearance from modern humans.)

[12] Relethford, J.H., “Genetic evidence and the modern human origins debate,” Nature 100(6):555-563, 5 March 2008.

[13] Wickman, Forrest, “What’s the shelf-life of DNA?” SLATE, https://slate.com/technology/2013/02/dna-testing-richard-iii-how-long-does-dna-last.html, 5 February 2013.

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Dr. Jerry Bergman has taught biology, genetics, chemistry, biochemistry, anthropology, geology, and microbiology for over 40 years at several colleges and universities including Bowling Green State University, Medical College of Ohio where he was a research associate in experimental pathology, and The University of Toledo. He is a graduate of the Medical College of Ohio, Wayne State University in Detroit, the University of Toledo, and Bowling Green State University. He has over 1,900 publications in 14 languages and 40 books and monographs. His books and textbooks that include chapters that he authored are in over 1,800 college libraries in 27 countries. So far over 80,000 copies of the 60 books and monographs that he has authored or co-authored are in print. For more articles by Dr Bergman, see his Author Profile.