Scientists have discovered a new member of the human family tree, revealed by a huge trove of bones in a barely accessible, pitch-dark chamber of a cave in South Africa. Homo naledi, that’s what the species is being called, appears to be an odd combination of primitive and modern features not previously seen together.
Homo naledi stood just five foot tall and weighed 100 pounds. Their hips were similar to our earliest ancestor, the hominid Lucy, but their shoulders were well designed for climbing but legs and feet were human like. Their skulls are like early humans, but their brains are tiny, just the size of an orange. They also had opposable thumbs much like our own that would have allowed them dexterity somewhat like that of humans.
But the most significant similarity between Homo naledi and humans is not anatomical. Scientists say the cave location the Homo naledi remains were found appears to be a burial chamber. Before the discovery scientists believed that only Homo sapiens had enough compassion and self-awareness to bury the dead.
The new species was found in a remote cave 50 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa. The 1,550 fossil elements excavated from the cave are believed to be parts of at least 15 infants, children, adults and elderly of the same species – and are just a small fraction of the fossils discovered.
The discovery was announced Thursday by the University of the Witwatersrand, the National Geographic Society, and the South African National Research Foundation, with findings described in two papers published in the journal eLife and featured as the cover story in the October issue of National Geographic Magazine. The initial discovery was made in 2013 in a cave known as ‘Rising Star’ located in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site.
Images: National Geographic