Homo naledi: New species of human ancestor discovered in South Africa
9 replies, posted
[quote]Rising Star Cave, South Africa (CNN)When an amateur caver and university geologist arrived at Lee Berger's house one night in late 2013 with a fragment of a fossil jawbone in hand, they broke out the beers and called National Geographic. Berger, a professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, had unearthed some major finds before. But he knew he had something big on his hands. The team is calling this new species of human relative "Homo naledi," and they say it appears to have buried its dead -- a behavior scientists previously thought was limited to humans. "There is no damage from predators, there is no sign of a catastrophe. We had to come to the inevitable conclusion that Homo naledi, a non-human species of hominid, was deliberately disposing of its dead in that dark chamber. Why, we don't know," Berger told CNN. "Until the moment of discovery of 'naledi,' I would have probably said to you that it was our defining character. The idea of burial of the dead or ritualized body disposal is something utterly uniquely human."[/quote]
[quote]Almost human but not quite- Homo naledi is a strange mosaic of the ancient and the thoroughly modern. Naledi's brain was no bigger than an orange, scientists say. Its hands are superficially human-like, but the finger bones are locked into a curve -- a trait that suggests climbing and tool-using capabilities. "Overall, Homo naledi looks like one of the most primitive members of our genus, but it also has some surprisingly human-like features, enough to warrant placing it in the genus Homo," says John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a senior author on the papers describing the new species that were published Thursday.[/quote]
[img_thumb]http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/150910101735-restricted-homo-naledi-nat-geo-6-exlarge-169.jpg[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/150910114256-restricted-nat-geo-bones-exlarge-169.jpg[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/150910105558-restricted-homo-naledi-foot-wits-exlarge-169.jpg[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/150910110718-restricted-homo-naledi-hands-wits-exlarge-169.jpg[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/150910092424-restricted-homo-naledi-nat-geo-3-exlarge-169.jpg[/img_thumb]
[url]http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/10/africa/homo-naledi-human-relative-species/index.html[/url]
Holy shit this is purely awesome. Who knows how much more unknown human species do we still have to find ?
Amazing find. I'm really looking forward to these getting dated.
Misreaded title as homo nailed.
As for discovery - it's great and i hope for positive impact on history of mankind.
[QUOTE=NoMan;48652440]Amazing find. I'm really looking forward to these getting dated.[/QUOTE]
According to the article on fox news they could date back 2.8 million years
Welcome to the family.
[QUOTE=karimatrix;48652451]Misreaded title as homo nailed.
As for discovery - it's great and i hope for positive impact on history of mankind.[/QUOTE]
[img]https://facepunch.com/fp/flags/ru.png[/img]
[highlight](User was banned for this post ("why reply" - Orkel))[/highlight]
[QUOTE]and they say it appears to have buried its dead -- a behavior scientists previously thought was limited to humans.[/QUOTE]
Aren't elephants (at least some species) known to do this too? Or is it referring only to species within the [I]Homo [/I]genus?
[QUOTE=Angry pepper;48654520]Aren't elephants (at least some species) known to do this too? Or is it referring only to species within the [I]Homo [/I]genus?[/QUOTE]
They don't bury their dead, just respect it.
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