Homo naledi: New species of

human ancestor discovered in

South Africa
September 10, 2015

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.
What he didn't know at the time is that it would shake up our understanding
of the progress of human evolution and even pose new questions about our
identity. Two years after they were tipped off by cavers plumbing the depths
of the limestone tunnels in the Rising Star Cave outside Johannesburg,
Berger and his team have discovered what they say is a new addition to our
family tree.
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. Berger's team came up with the startling
theory just days after reaching the place where the fossils -- consisting of
infants, children, adults and elderly individuals -- were found, in a previously
isolated chamber within the cave.
The team believes that the chamber, located 30 meters underground in the
Cradle of Humanity world heritage site, was a burial ground -- and that Homo
naledi could have used fire to light the way.
"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."
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.
Homo naledi was relatively big: it stood about 5 feet tall, had long legs, and
its feet are almost identical to ours, suggesting it had the ability to walk long
distances.

"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. The fossils were found at the end of a series of
chambers and tight squeezes deep underground, some 90 meters (100
yards) from the cave entrance. To get there, scientists would have to
squeeze through a 7-inch wide cave opening. The scientists can make these
claims, in part, because of the sheer scale of the find.