New link in the evolutionary puzzle discovered

When Steven Tucker and Rick Hunter found an exceptionally narrow cave in South Africa during a 2013 expedition they didn’t realize what they had discovered. With a photograph of a mandible protruding out of silt on the other side, the pair’s discovery would eventually lead to an entirely new, but extinct, Hominin species being found.

Their co-worker, National Geographic explorer Lee Berger had hired them to scout for possible fossils and after seeing the photo, Berger checked out the site with his son, returning immediately to organize an expedition.

Placing an ad on Facebook, Berger pulled together a team of six women from Australia, Canada and the US, whittled down from a roster of 60 initial applicants.

Lindsay Eaves, Marina Elliott, Elen Feuerriegel, Alia Gurtov, Hannah Morris and Becca Peixotto were the lucky six chosen. A mix of masters and doctorate students, the team of biological anthropologists and archaeologists went to work, carefully removing silt and fossil samples from the cave floor 30-metres below the Earth’s surface.

After two multi-week expeditions, one occurring in Nov. 2013 and the other in March 2014, 1550 bone fragments were recovered from the Rising Star Cave located in South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind.

The discoveries suggested a new addition to the Homininae family tree, going by the name of Homo naledi.

The ‘Cradle’ got its nickname due to the high numbers of human ancestors’ fossils found in the cave systems, including a species found by Berger back in 2008, Australopithecus sediba.

For the next two years, the team meticulously worked on the recovered pieces and like a jigsaw puzzle marathon, they were able to identify at least 15 specific individuals and barely any other animal remains.

The findings were recently published on Sept. 10.

The findings have not yet been properly dated due to the complex way in which the bodies were originally deposited into their resting place and researchers involved aren’t quick to give an estimate.

Standard ways to measure, such as Carbon-14, won’t be as effective due to the possible age of the remains. While there are complex ways to get a date, they also take time and are quite costly.

The research team has stated during subsequent press releases that no dates will be given until several tests show ages in the same range, so it may be a long time before we have any information as to how far back H. naledi goes into history.

The species is unique in that it has traits of a human-like body for walking upright, but the skulls are smaller and more similar to bentover australopithecus species.

The find is also important as it represents the largest grouping of a single hominin species ever to be found in Africa.

What’s most interesting to the researchers and interested members of the public is that the location of the re mains suggests that they were placed, or possibly shoved, into the cave after death.

This implies complex death and burial rituals, or simply an easy way to remove a potential disease-transmitter from its peers. Either way this is serious news that’s bound to change what humans think they know about their evolution and their rituals towards the dead.