This story was originally published in our January/February 2022 issue. Click here to subscribe to read more stories like this one.
In late 2017, paleontologist Qiang Ji showed his anthropologist colleague Xijun Ni photos of a human skull with a hefty browridge. Besides missing all but one tooth, the cranium appeared remarkably intact — making it one of the best-preserved skulls from any human ancestor or relative. “I was shocked,” recalls Ni. “I said, ‘This is the most important discovery, [more] than any of your dinosaurs.’ ”
Ji, a dinosaur expert at Hebei GEO University in China, didn’t excavate the specimen. It reportedly surfaced in 1933, when a contractor was building a bridge near Harbin City in northeast China. After encountering the fossil, he stashed it in a well to protect it from Japanese occupiers. The noggin remained there for 85 years, until the dying man divulged its location. His ...
