Paleoartist John Gurche used a plastic replica of a fossilized skull of an archaic human from the genus Homo, Homo longi (also known as "dragon man"), to recreate the appearance of the hominid that died out about 150 years ago. Today, scientists consider "dragon man" to be a side branch of the development of intelligent primates, which existed alongside Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, and Denisovans.
The skull of the "dragon man" was discovered in 1933 by a Chinese worker in Harbin. Although it is similar in size to a modern human skull, it has wider cheekbones and prominent brow ridges. The Chinese hid the fossil in a well, where it lay until the 2018st century, when the skull resurfaced in XNUMX.
Today, this fossil is known as the Harbin Skull.
John Gurche estimated the facial features of the ancient hominid based on the ratio of the size of the eyes to the size of the eye sockets, as well as by measuring aspects of the bone structure of the skull to determine the shape and size of the nose. Gurche then placed muscles and skin on the face, following the markings on the skull, and thus presented the appearance of the "dragon man".