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Reuters


The fossilised bones of 15 bodies from a previously unknown human species have been discovered in a cave in South Africa, it was announced today, in what scientists hailed as a breakthrough in evolution research.
“I am pleased to introduce you to a new species of human ancestor,” Lee Berger, research professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, told reporters.

The new species – described in the scientific journal eLife – has been named Homo naledi, in honour of the Rising Star cave where it was found. Naledi means “star” in South Africa’s Sesotho language.
Fossils of the creature were unearthed in a deep cave near the famed sites of Sterkfontein and Swartkrans, treasure troves 50 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg that have yielded pieces of the puzzle of human evolution for decades.
“It was right under our nose in the most explored valley of the continent of Africa,” said Berger of the university’s Evolutionary Studies Institute, said.
The remains, Africa’s largest single collection of hominin (human and human-related) fossils, comprised 15 individuals, from infants to the elderly, pieced together from more than 1,500 fragments.
Paleoanthropologists concluded that Homo naledi buried their dead – a trait previously believed to be uniquely human – through a process of deduction.
Virtually no other remains from other species were found there and the bones bore no claw or tooth marks, suggesting they were not the leftovers from a predator’s larder or death trap.

“It does appear after eliminating all other possibilities that Homo naledi was deliberately disposing of its body in a repeated fashion,” Berger said.
“That indicates to us that they were seeing themselves as separate from other animals and in fact perhaps from the natural world,” he added.
He set aside another theory that they may have been hiding their dead deep underground, simply to keep off scavengers like the long-legged hyena.
“They are only selecting their own dead. If they were doing that they would put everything in it that would attract a predator or a scavenger,” he said.
This is not the first time that the study of our relatives, extinct or living, has yielded evidence that humans do not have the monopoly on certain kinds of behaviour.

Jane Goodall in 1960 famously observed chimpanzees, our closest living relative, using grass stems for termite “fishing”, the first recorded use of a crude tool by non-humans.
Homo naledi, discovered in the cave in September 2013, had a brain slightly larger than a chimpanzee’s, but its age remains an enigma, said Berger.
This is because the specimens found were deliberately taken to the chamber, and so there are no rocks or sentiments under or overlaying them, he added.
There are also no fossils with them from other animals that could provide clues.
“But we can see from their physical morphology or appearance where their species originates in time. If our present understanding is correct, then that must be in excess of 2.5 million years,” said Berger.
The surrounding area is a UN World Heritage site, named the “Cradle of Humankind” by the South African government because of its rich collection of hominin fossils.
With additional reporting by Agence France-Presse


Meet ‘homo naledi’: new human species discovered from South African cave fossils

This photo provided by National Geographic from their October 2015 issue shows a reconstruction of Homo naledi's face by paleoartist John Gurche. Photo: AP

This photo provided by National Geographic from their October 2015 issue shows a composite skeleton of Homo naledi surrounded by some of the hundreds of other fossil elements recovered from the Rising Star cave in South Africa. Photo: AP

A mandible of Homo naledi. Photo: AFP

The partial skulls of homo naledi. Photo: AFP

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Ancient human species likely buried their dead and 'saw themselves as separate from animals'


The fossilised bones of 15 bodies from a previously unknown human species have been discovered in a cave in South Africa, it was announced today, in what scientists hailed as a breakthrough in evolution research.


.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Ancient human species likely buried their dead and 'saw themselves as separate from animals'

Ancient human species likely buried their dead and 'saw themselves as separate from animals'