2.1: Discovering Homo Naledi

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How many early human species existed on Earth?

We Homo sapiens didn't used to be alone. Long ago, there was a lot more human diversity; Homo sapiens lived alongside an estimated eight now-extinct species of human about 300,000 years ago

How many early human species existed on Earth?

There is no clear consensus on how many species of Homo sapiens there are. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History has listed at least 21 human species that are recognized by most scientists.

According to human evolution expert Chris Stringer of the British Natural History Museum, the number of known Homo species has more than doubled from four (4) to nine (9) in the last 15 years.

The most widely accepted taxonomy grouping takes the genus Homo as originating between two and three million years ago, divided into at least two species, archaic Homo erectus and modern Homo sapiens.

How new?

One of the most recent hominin species was discovered in 2013. Discovered in the Rising Star Cave system, Gauteng province of South Africa

Dating to the Middle Pleistocene 335,000–236,000 years ago. The initial discovery comprises 1,550 specimens of bone, representing 737 different skeletal elements, and at least 15 different individuals.

Discovery

On 13 September 2013 while exploring the Rising Star Cave system in the Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, cavers Rick Hunter and Steven Tucker found hominin fossils at the bottom of the Dinaledi Chamber. 
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On the 24th, they returned to the chamber and took photos, which they showed to South African paleoanthropologists Pedro Boshoff and Lee Rogers Berger on October 1.  Berger assembled an excavation team which included Hunter and Tucker, the so-called "Underground Astronauts".

Cave System

How?

To reach the Dinaledi chamber, one had to overcome an obstacle course.  After entering and descending along a narrow, downward-winding passage, squeezing between the rocks, and going down a ladder (installed for the purpose of this dig), the first choke point is reached.

Known as Superman's Crawl and extending for 7 meters, almost everyone has to crawl with one arm extended over their heads to get through.

After a little more open bit, Dragon's Back looms ahead - a nearly 20-metre-long ascent marked by a series of scale-like flat rocks jagging up. A meter-wide gap then has to be crossed before reaching the 18 cm wide slot that forms the entrance into the chamber more than 50 meters below.

Video Question

What feature does H. naledi have that is similar to an ape?

Game changer

The ability of such a small-brained hominin to have survived for so long in the midst of bigger-brained Homo greatly revises previous conceptions of human evolution and the notion that a larger brain would necessarily lead to an evolutionary advantage.

Food

Dental chipping and wearing indicates the habitual consumption of small hard objects, such as dirt and dust, and cup-shaped wearing on the back teeth may have stemmed from gritty particles. These could have originated from unwashed roots and tubers

Hypothesis for ALL the Remains

In 2015, archaeologist Paul Dirks, Berger, and colleagues concluded that the bodies had to have been deliberately carried and placed into the chamber by people because they appear to have been intact when they were first deposited in the chamber.

There is NO evidence of trauma from being dropped into the chamber nor of predation, and there is exceptional preservation. The chamber is inaccessible to large predators, appears to be an isolated system, and has never been flooded. That is, natural forces were not at play.

Unknown: Cave of Bones 

• Documentary on the entire dig site 

• Released July 17th 2023

• 1hr 33min

• Tv-PG

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Netflix