Science recap: This week's discoveries include new clues from the fossil skull of a mysterious human species

Editor's note: A version of this story appeared in CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.
Tens of thousands of years ago, our species — Homo sapiens — mingled and interbred with other prehistoric humans: our distant cousins, the Neanderthals and Denisovans.
Hundreds of Neanderthal fossils give us a good idea of their appearance, lives and relationships, but so little is known about Denisovans that they still don't have an official scientific name.
Evidence of their existence has surfaced in faint traces, mapped by DNA markers that lurk in our own genetic makeup and confirmed by only a few fossil fragments.
This week, however, a 146,000-year-old skull dredged out of a well in China in 2018 may just be a key missing piece to this cryptic evolutionary puzzle.
The nearly complete skull did not match any previously known species of prehistoric human.
But two new studies — which researchers say are among the biggest paleoanthropology papers of the year — detail how scientists were able to extract genetic material from the fossil and help unravel this biological mystery.
The DNA sample taken from 'Dragon Man,' as the specimen is called, revealed that he was in fact related to Denisovans, early humans who are thought to have lived between roughly 500,000 and 30,000 years ago.
The finding could be monumental, helping to paint a fuller picture of a time when our own species coexisted with other prehistoric humans.
Astronomers have long grappled with the quandary of 'dark matter,' but plenty of enigmas surround regular matter as well.
The proton-and-neutron-based atoms that we're familiar with are called baryonic matter. And this material is strewn between galaxies like intergalactic fog, making it extremely difficult to measure.
Perhaps, that is, until now.
A new study explains how scientists were able to observe the baryonic matter using the flashing of fast radio bursts.
In a rare encounter, scientists have captured the first-ever footage of an elusive 3-foot-long squid alive in its deep-sea habitat.
Fruit, flowers, birds and musical instruments decorated the walls of a luxury villa — part of a site the excavation team dubbed the 'Beverly Hills' of Roman Britain — before the building was razed roughly 1,800 years ago.
The frescoes were painstakingly pieced together by experts from the Museum of London Archaeology. Han Li, senior building material specialist at MOLA, described the effort as a 'once in a lifetime' opportunity.
Romans invaded modern-day Britain in AD 43 and established Londinium, the precursor to modern London. The occupation lasted for almost 400 years.
Under the life-affirming glow of the sun, methane is a dangerous gas to be avoided.
A heat-trapping chemical pollutant in Earth's atmosphere, methane exacerbates the climate crisis. But within the planet's deep recesses — thousands of feet below the ocean's surface off the US West Coast — the gas can be transformed into a nutritious meal.
At least for spiders.
Scientists say they've discovered three previously unknown species of sea spider living around methane seeps. In these marine habitats where sunlight can't reach, gas escapes through cracks in the seafloor and feeds bacteria that latch on to the spiders' exoskeletons.
The bacteria convert carbon-rich methane and oxygen into sugars and fats the spiders can eat, according to a new study.
The newfound Sericosura sea spiders may pass methane-fueled bacteria to their hatchlings as an easy source of food, the researchers suggest.
Check out these other must-read science stories from the week:
— A SpaceX Starship rocket exploded during a routine ground test on Wednesday. Explore how this and other recent setbacks may affect the company's Mars ambitions.
— A tiny brown moth in Australia migrates some 600 miles at night using the stars for navigation — something only humans and birds were known to do before.
— A hunt for ghostly cosmic particles found anomalous signals coming from Antarctic ice. A new detector could help scientists explain what they are.
— Researchers used DNA to reconstruct the face of a prehistoric woman who lived around 10,500 years ago in what's now Belgium, suggesting that skin color already varied considerably among different populations.
Like what you've read? Oh, but there's more. Sign up here to receive in your inbox the next edition of Wonder Theory, brought to you by CNN Space and Science writers Ashley Strickland, Katie Hunt and Jackie Wattles. They find wonder in planets beyond our solar system and discoveries from the ancient world.

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Until he found the tooth three months ago, researchers had no record that crocodiles — which have remained almost unchanged for millions of years — existed in this area. But the researcher's biggest find is a previously undiscovered bird that may be named after him, the Saint Ongii. In the hills between Paso Robles and Cambria, Saint'Onge found an almost complete, detailed fossil impression in the shale. It was of a new species of a diving bird similar to a gull or shearwater. Because birds' bones are hollow and the feathers decompose, their fossils are extremely hard to come by, the researcher says. This is the first record that the bird existed. Saint'Onge's other finds include fist-sized mastodon molars in San Miguel, whale skulls all over the county, camel bones in Dry Creek in Paso Robles and molars and tusks from desmostylians, an extinct animal similar to a hippo or walrus, in Coalinga. Teeth are the most common finds because they are harder than marrow-filled bone, allowing them to fossilize more easily. 'I'm adding to the fossil record of North America,' he says. Saint'Onge specializes in the Miocene time period — about 23 million to 10 million years ago. In contrast, dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago and man showed up about 5 million years ago. He's been with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County as a field researcher since 1988. 'After a couple of hundred finds I guess they decided to give me a chance,' he said. Saint'Onge sends all of his finds to the museum for official identification, aging and cataloging. Though Saint'Onge keeps his sites secret so they aren't picked clean or overrun, he will take an interested amateurs on digs with him to show what to look for. 'Most people throw away 80 to 90 percent of what they're looking for' because the fossils are so small or indistinguishable, he said. It is illegal to collect items from private property without a permit or permission. Saint'Onge has been interested in the pre-historic since his first-grade class took a field trip to the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. 'I saw the dinosaurs and I was hooked,' he said. 'It's the idea that all these things lived on this earth that amazes me,' he said. 'Fossils are like pages in a history book — it's a different way of looking at the world. After living in Southern California for several years and learning about the miocene era there, Saint'Onge moved to San Miguel — partly because he knew this county is a virtually unresearched 'bone bed.' 'Pretty much you can go everywhere and find stuff,' he said. Saint'Onge digs during the day and works at night and Ennis Business Forms in Paso Robles. He's a graphic designer and former illustrator for Warner Bros. cartoon characters. He still creates T-shirt and product packaging designs for them as a freelancer. His wife, Sherry, and children, Rex Jr. and Ashley, help him occasionally on his digs even though they don't share his passion for paleontology. 'But I just cant think of anything else I'd rather be doing.'