The famous ‘Harbin cranium’ dates back to at least 146,000 years ago and was previously assigned to a new species, Homo longi.
A reconstruction of the Harbin individual in his habitat. Image credit: Chuang Zhao.
The Harbin cranium was discovered in 1933 when a bridge was built over the Songhua River in Harbin City, the Heilongjiang province, China.
Because of its unsystematic recovery and the long time interval, information about the exact site and fossil layer was lost.
The fossil is massive in size, larger than all other archaic humans. It is also relatively long and low and lacks the globularity of the modern human braincase.
It has larger, almost square eye sockets, thick brow ridges, a wide mouth, and oversized teeth.
The cranium’s endocranial capacity is estimated as 1,420 ml, falling in the range of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, and larger than earlier Homo species.
Also known as the ‘Dragon man’ fossil, the specimen likely represents a male less than 50 years old.
In new research, Dr. Qiaomiei Fu from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and colleagues conducted a paleoproteomic analysis of the fossil and its dental calculus.
They identified over 308,000 peptides, more than 20,000 peptides, and confirmed 95 endogenous proteins.
They also discovered 122 single amino acid polymorphisms (SAPs) unique to hominids, confirming the Harbin individual’s classification within the Homo genus.
Notably, they identified three variants unique to Denisovans, establishing a phylogenetic link between the Harbin fossil and Denisova 3, a small fragment of a finger bone from Denisova Cave.
“Prior to this discovery, Denisovan fossils were limited and fragmentary, complicating our understanding of their morphology and evolutionary history,” the reserchers said.
“The Harbin fossil, identified as a new species, Homo longi, shares significant morphological similarities with Denisovan remains found at other locations.”
The portrait of the Harbin individual. Image credit: Cicero Moraes, doi: 10.6084/m9.figshare.24648591.
The scientists also successfully retrieved mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from dental calculus of the fossil.
Their results confirmed that the Harbin individual belongs to an early mtDNA lineage of Denisovans.
“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,” the authors said.
“This suggests that Denisovans inhabited a large geographical range in Asia in the Middle Pleistocene.”
The finding that the Harbin skull contains Denisovan mtDNA connects Denisovans with morphological traits and will help to identify other specimens as Denisovans, especially when ancient DNA is not preserved or difficult to obtain.
For example, fossils from Dali, Jinniushan, and Hualongdong show morphological traits similar to those in the Harbin cranium, making it plausible that they also represent Denisovan populations.
“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,” the researchers said.
“Furthermore, the retrieval of host DNA from dental calculus opens new possibilities for genetic research on Middle Pleistocene hominins.”
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Qiaomei Fu et al. The proteome of the Late Middle Pleistocene Harbin individual. Science, published online June 18, 2025; doi: 10.1126/science.adu9677
Qiaomei Fu et al. Denisovan mitochondrial DNA from dental calculus of the>146,000-year-old Harbin cranium. Cell, published online June 18, 2025; doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.05.040
