编者按：当科学家们拂去龙人头骨上的尘埃，我们迎来的不仅是一项改写人类演化史的科学突破，更是一次与远古东方的深刻对望。这件来自远古的遗存，将中华文明的地理舞台推向更深远的历史维度——在文字、青铜与城邦出现之前的数十万年间，这片土地早已上演过智慧生命的壮阔史诗。虽然龙人并非中华文明的直接创造者，但它的存在深刻影响着我们对于文明起源与延续的认知。这段跨越时空的对话，不仅关乎“我们是谁”，更关乎我们如何理解脚下这片承载过无数生命实验的东方之地。

北京时间2025年9月26日凌晨，国际知名学术期刊《科学》发布了由中国多机构团队完成的重磅研究。研究人员通过高精度CT重建与几何形态测量（GMM）分析发现，郧县人头骨在面部平展度、眶上隆凸和颅容量等特征上与黑龙江龙人头骨相近，而明显区别于直立人。研究据此指出，此前被认为是直立人的“郧县人”头骨，实际上是与神秘古人类“丹尼索瓦人”密切相关的“龙人”（Homo longi）支系的早期代表。这一结论不仅将现代人、尼安德特人和龙人支系的分化时间大幅推前，更在科学维度之外，为我们打开了一扇回望东方远古历史的新窗口。

图为“郧县人2号”头骨化石复原

龙人研究成果一经发布，便在社交媒体引发广泛热议。公众的讨论焦点不仅在于其科学意义，更在于其名字本身：“这是我们的祖先吗？”“我们真的是‘龙的传人’？”事实上，龙人的命名源自其发现地黑龙江省。虽然命名来自地理概念，但当“龙”这个深植于集体记忆的文化符号，与一项改写人类认知的重磅发现相结合时，便不可避免地催生出超越科学范畴的丰富想象。这并非源于严谨的科学谱系，而是根植于文化心理的深刻共鸣。

在东方文明的集体记忆中，“龙”从来不只是生物学的虚构物种，而是权力、祥瑞、民族认同的至高象征。从红山文化的玉龙到紫禁城的九龙壁，从“盘古之君，龙首蛇身”到“水不在深，有龙则灵”，这条神兽贯穿了中华文明的精神谱系。因此，当“龙”与“人”在科学语境中重新结合时，它不再只是一个冷冰冰的学术标签，而成为接通演化史与文化情感的奇妙触点。

图为“中华第一玉雕龙”

龙人的命名，在表层的地理逻辑之下，暗合了这片土地最深层的文化密码。它像一把钥匙，无意间开启了一扇通往集体记忆的大门，让一个远古的发现，瞬间在我们共同的文化语境中获得了生命与回响。这种文化基因的觉醒，某种程度上反映了我们在科技高速发展的时代，对自身文化根源的不懈追寻。在全球化浪潮中，我们比任何时候都更需要确认“我们是谁”，而龙人恰好提供了一个回望的契机。

图为艺术家约翰·古尔奇（John Gurche）根据龙人头骨制作的复原模型

“我们是谁”的追问，必然引向“我们从何处来”，并最终关乎“我们脚下的这片土地经历了什么”。于是，当视线越过龙人这个名字，一片辽阔的土地及其背后百万年的时光，便缓缓铺陈开来，引领我们去思考一个更深层的问题：这片东方之地，在人类演化的壮阔史诗中，究竟扮演了怎样的角色？

对此，龙人化石给出了新的回答。传统观点常将东亚视为古人类迁徙的“终点站”。然而，以龙人化石为代表的新发现表明，东亚地区很可能是一个充满活力的区域性演化中心。在漫长的更新世时期，龙人在这片土地上独立演化了数十万年。他们不仅经历了冰期与间冰期的严酷考验，更发展出约1420毫升的脑容量——这一数值已经与现代人相当。种种迹象表明，龙人在东亚大陆走出了一条与西部欧亚的尼安德特人并行而独特的演化道路。

这一发现不仅证实了东亚地区具备独立孕育智慧生命的生态舞台与演化条件，更赋予了这片土地更深刻的内涵：在中华文明诞生之前，这里早已上演过波澜壮阔的智慧演化史诗，积淀下远比文字历史悠远深厚的史前底蕴。这份跨越百万年的生命记忆，为我们理解脚下土地注入了前所未有的时间纵深，也让我们这些后来者，对这片持续创造奇迹的古老圣地生发出更深沉的敬意。

图为即梦AI生成的“远古中华大地场景”

在文化多元的今天，龙人的故事为我们思考文化认同提供了新视角。虽然它并未直接告诉我们“我们是谁”，但它深刻地提醒着我们“我们从何而来”。我们的祖先与龙人一样，都曾是这片土地上的过客与探索者。他们的存在，丰富了我们对“人类”这一概念的理解，也让我们脚下的土地因这段深邃的记忆而显得更加厚重。

虽然我们大多不是龙人血脉上的后裔，但我们无疑是这片孕育过无数生命奇迹的土地的文化继承者。作为这片土地的继承者，我们肩负着双重使命：以科学精神解读历史，以文化胸怀温存记忆。科学让历史说话，而文化让历史有了温度。在这个科技日新月异的时代，守护对文化根源的温情与敬意，或将成为我们面向未来的重要精神资源。

当来自远古东方的生命低语穿越时空抵达耳畔，它邀请我们以更谦卑的姿态理解人类在自然中的位置，对所有曾经存在过的智慧生命报以深沉敬意，并以此为基础，迈出走向未来的坚实步伐。

撰稿人：何博媛

Brushing Off the Dust of Time: From the Name "Homo longi" to the Origins of Civilization

Editor's Note: As scientists brush the dust from Homo longi skull fossil, we are not only witnessing a scientific breakthrough that rewrites the history of human evolution, but also a profound encounter with the ancient East. This ancient discovery pushes the geographical stage of Chinese civilization to a deeper historical dimension: for the hundreds of thousands of years before the appearance of writing, bronze, and city-states, this land was already the setting for a magnificent epic of intelligent life. Although Homo longi is not the direct creator of Chinese civilization, its existence profoundly impacts how we understand the origin and continuity of civilization. This dialogue across time not only concerns "who we are" but also how we comprehend this Eastern land that has carried countless life experiments.

On September 26, 2025, Beijing time, the internationally renowned academic journal Science published a landmark study completed by a multi-institutional team in China. Through high-precision CT reconstruction and geometric morphometric (GMM) analysis, researchers discovered that the Yunxian Man skull shares features such as a flat face, supraorbital torus, and cranial capacity with the Heilongjiang Homo longi skull, while being significantly different from Homo erectus. The study thus suggests that the "Yunxian Man" skull, previously considered Homo erectus, is actually an early representative of the "Homo longi" (Homo longi) lineage, which is closely related to the mysterious ancient human, the Denisovans. This conclusion not only significantly pushes back the divergence time of the modern human, Neanderthal, and Homo longi lineages, but also, beyond the scientific dimension, opens a new window for us to look back at the ancient history of the East.

As soon as Homo longi research was published, it sparked widespread heated discussion on social media. The focus of public debate was not only its scientific significance but also the name itself: "Is this our ancestor?" "Are we truly 'descendants of the Dragon'?" In fact, Homo longi was named after its discovery location, Heilongjiang Province. Although the name stems from a geographical concept, the combination of "Dragon" — a cultural symbol deeply embedded in collective memory—with a monumental discovery that rewrites human cognition, inevitably inspires a rich imagination that transcends the realm of science. This arises not from a rigorous scientific lineage, but from a profound resonance rooted in cultural psychology.

In the collective memory of Eastern civilization, the "Dragon" is never merely a fictional biological species; it is the ultimate symbol of power, auspiciousness, and national identity. From the jade dragon of the Hongshan culture to the Nine-Dragon Wall in the Forbidden City, from "Pangu, the sovereign, with a dragon head and a snake body" to "water need not be deep, for the presence of a dragon makes it sacred," this divine beast runs through the spiritual tapestry of Chinese civilization. Therefore, when "Dragon" and "Man" recombine in a scientific context, it ceases to be a cold academic label and becomes a marvelous point of contact connecting evolutionary history with cultural emotion.

The naming of Homo longi, beneath its superficial geographical logic, corresponds to the deepest cultural code of this land. It acts like a key, unintentionally opening a door to collective memory, allowing an ancient discovery to instantly gain life and resonance within our shared cultural context. This awakening of the cultural gene reflects, to some extent, our unremitting pursuit of our own cultural roots in an era of rapid technological development. In the tide of globalization, we need to confirm "who we are" more than ever, and Homo longi offers an opportunity to look back.

The question of "who we are" inevitably leads to "where we come from" and ultimately concerns "what this land beneath our feet has experienced". Thus, when the gaze extends beyond the name Homo longi, a vast expanse of land and the million years of time behind it slowly unfold, guiding us to ponder a deeper question: What role did this Eastern land play in the grand epic of human evolution?

Homo longi fossil offers a new answer to this. Traditional views often regard East Asia as a "terminus" for ancient human migration. However, new discoveries represented by Homo longi fossil indicate that East Asia was likely a vibrant, regional evolutionary center. During the long Pleistocene epoch, Homo longi evolved independently on this land for hundreds of thousands of years. They not only endured the severe tests of glacial and interglacial periods but also developed a cranial capacity of about 1420 milliliters—a value comparable to that of modern humans. All signs suggest that Homo longi charted a unique evolutionary path in the East Asian continent, running parallel to the Neanderthals in Western Eurasia.

This discovery not only confirms that the East Asian region possessed the ecological stage and evolutionary conditions to independently foster intelligent life, but also endows this land with a profounder meaning: before the birth of Chinese civilization, a magnificent epic of intelligent evolution had already unfolded here, accumulating a prehistoric foundation far deeper and more enduring than written history. This memory of life, spanning a million years, injects an unprecedented temporal depth into our understanding of the land beneath our feet and inspires a deeper reverence in us, the later generations, for this ancient, sacred place that continues to create miracles.

In today's culturally diverse world, Homo longi story offers a new perspective for contemplating cultural identity. While it does not directly tell us "who we are," it profoundly reminds us "where we came from". Our ancestors, like Homo longi, were once travelers and explorers on this land. Their existence enriches our understanding of the concept of "humanity," and makes the land beneath our feet feel even more substantial because of this profound memory.

Although most people in China are not descendants of Homo longi, we are undoubtedly the cultural inheritors of this land that has fostered countless miracles of life. As inheritors of this land, we shoulder a dual mission: to interpret history with a scientific spirit and to warm memory with cultural breadth. Science allows history to speak, and culture gives history warmth. In this era of rapid technological advancement, safeguarding the warmth and respect for cultural roots may become an important spiritual resource for facing the future.

When the soft murmur of life from the ancient East travels through time to reach our ears, it invites us to understand humanity's place in nature with a more humble attitude, to hold a deep reverence for all intelligent life that has ever existed, and on this foundation, to take solid steps toward the future.