Mysterious 'dragon man' skull found in the 1930s finally identified

A mysterious human skull exposed in the s has been identified as an existing species after once being thought to be a new species all together according to researchers The studies posted in the journals Cell and Science have identified the -year-old skull known as dragon man has been categorized as a Denisovan The researchers revealed that the Denisovans were discovered by their genomes and proteins to identify them However the reason it took so long to identify was that the attempts to extract DNA from a tooth failed MYSTERIOUS 'DUMPED' BODIES OF WOMAN AND CHILD DETERMINED BY ARCHAEOLOGISTS IN PICTURESQUE TOWNResearchers also tried extracting DNA from the Harbin cranium as well which also failed When those methods failed researchers turned to using dental calculus which uses calcified dental plaque The calcified dental plaque could hold and protect DNA due to its dense crystalline structure that resists degradation in various environments EXPERTS SOLVE MYSTERY OF ANCIENT 'MUMMIFIED DRAGON' DISCOVERED BY JAPANESE SHOGUNResearchers used bleach on the dental plaque in order to eliminate any workable modern-day DNA Once extracted researchers began to compare the genetic material discovered to previous samples The researchers identified that the dragon man was not a new species but was a Denisovan and the very first intact specimen to date According to the researchers Denisovans coexisted with modern-day humans and are closely related to Neanderthals The dragon man was discovered in mysterious circumstances when a Chinese laborer working on a bridge over the Songhua River identified it The man kept the Harbin cranium well hidden as he was instructed to hide it from the Japanese army CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPThe skull was donated shortly before his death in after which his family relocated the skull and gave it to the Geoscience Museum Hebei GEO University professor Qiang Ji While there are limitations to this examination the researchers mentioned there is still so much to learn moving forward It was called dragon man because it was exposed in the Heilongjiang province of China which translates to Black Dragon River Fox News Digital s Julia Musto contributed to this story