The mysterious Homo naledi
A new human fossil has been found, and it has some intriguing and unusual characteristics:
The researchers suggest that the fossils represent a previously unknown species in our genus, Homo, one that had a peculiar mix of physical traits and engaged in surprisingly sophisticated behavior for its brain size. But the age of the fossils has yet to be determined, leaving other scientists unsure of what to make of them.
The fossils exhibit a combination of primitive features that bring to mind our ancient australopithecine predecessors (including Lucy and her ilk) and features that are associated with Homo. For instance, the pelvis has a flared shape like that seen in Australopithecus, whereas the leg and foot resemble those of Homo sapiens. Likewise, the skull combines a small braincase with a cranium that is otherwise built like that of early Homo. The teeth, meanwhile, are small like those of modern humans, yet the third molar is larger than the other molars””a pattern associated with australopithecines. And the upper limb pairs an Australopithecus-like shoulder and fingers with a Homo-like wrist and palm. “All that combined leaves us with a really, really strange creature,” Berger remarks.
What’s more, there are lots and lots of them:
Cavers collected the bones from a difficult-to-reach chamber 30 meters below ground within the Rising Star cave system in South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind region, which is famous for its human fossils. In their paper describing the new remains, published today in the journal eLife, paleoanthropologist Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and his colleagues report that the remains include multiples of nearly every element of the skeleton and represent at least 15 individuals. For a field in which even an isolated bone can constitute a major discovery, this find is an absolute windfall.
That’s absolutely incredible, from what I know of early human fossils from my long-ago physical anthropology courses (I was an anthro minor).
The combination of traits that have been found in these fossils reminds me of the famous hoax Piltdown man, which was a sensation when it was first “discovered” because it combined an apelike jaw with a brain case that resemble a modern human’s, a sort of chimera. Well, that’s because it was composed of an ape’s jaw and a modern human cranium, a fact that was exposed about 40 years after its 1912 “discovery.”
Let me be clear that I’m not accusing the scientists who discovered Homo naledi of perpetrating a hoax. For one thing, it would have to be an awfully elaborate conspiracy, and for another, modern science makes it much tougher to fool anyone about this sort of thing. I’m trying to emphasize the somewhat unusual mixture of traits in these fossils.
Scientists have so far been unable to date the bones because the conditions in the cave did not favor the preservation of DNA. Age can tell you a lot; for example:
If the remains are young, then scientists will have to come to terms with the fact that a small-brained human species with tool-wielding hands managed to persist alongside larger-brained human species””possibly including H. sapiens””for an amazingly long time. In that case, says team member John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin, perhaps H. naledi was among the archaic human species that interbred with H. sapiens and thereby contributed DNA to the modern human gene pool, like Neandertals did.
There is also this:
At other fossil sites in the Cradle of Humankind, fossils are encased in sediment and animal bones are found mixed in with the human remains. The bones of humans and animals alike accumulate in the caves there through catastrophic events such as falling down a hole in the ground into an underground cave and getting trapped, or becoming dinner for the large carnivores that denned in the caves. But the Rising Star bones are not encased in sediment, nor do any remains of any vertebrate animals, apart from a few rodents and birds, accompany them. Given the absence of any evidence to indicate that Homo naledi fell or washed into the underground chamber or was transported there by a predator, the discovery team suggests that this small-brained human deliberately disposed of its dead. Furthermore, the location of the H. naledi bones in a chamber that appears to have always been lightless and difficult to access suggests that the humans went to great lengths to deliver the bodies there, and possibly needed an artificial light source (perhaps a simple torch) to do so. The behavior is important because it implies that H. naledi had, as Hawks puts is, “a shared cultural knowledge of mortality.”
Wow.
More here.
So they’ve ruled out any chance it’s Jimmy Hoffa?
No, OW, the location of Jimmy Hoffa was already unearthed in 2007. During her embalming, they chiseled 17 layers of makeup off Tammy Faye Bakker, and there he was.
Good one, geo 🙂
Whenever John Hawks is in on the deal, I pay attention. He makes an interesting observation over at his own site, that elephants seem to have some understanding of death and some odd “burial” sorts of behaviors. He does not attribute this to any common ancestor, of course (that would go waaayyy back), but to long-lived, social creatures gradually acquiring some sense of what death means.
The adventure of the story is fun, too. Archaeology always sounds so exciting when you read about it. The reality, of digging and brushing all day and finding a single nail, or magically, a button, is quite different.
For the last two years, Rising Star Expedition staff have posted blog entries at
http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/blog/rising-star-expedition/
It’s interesting to go back and read about all the slow, hard work. There are also a small number of videos.
Those of us interested in a non-technical version of the Expedition’s findings can check out next month’s National Geographic cover story.
Whoops.
I wrote:
“Those of us interested in a non-technical version of the Expedition’s findings can check out next month’s National Geographic cover story.”
The last line of Neo’s post is a link to the online version of that article. I didn’t catch that.
Sorry about the repetition.
What would one call the newly discovered fossils of western civilization? Characterized by a need to just give it all away, with no regard for its own offspring. Operating under the banner that “tolerance” and “multiculturalism” are the greatest of virtues…..
I keep laughing at the phrase “surprisingly sophisticated behavior for its brain size”. I keep thinking of shrimp forks and evening tailcoats.
Operating under the banner that “tolerance” and “multiculturalism” are the greatest of virtues…..
Pro-Abortion Attorney Tells Congress a Dismemberment Abortion is a “Humane Procedure”
Homo liberalis is known to mimic Homo sapiens.
This story reminds me of the television series “V”.
The whole pursuit is nonsense…very simple…evolutionists are saying the world happened by accident. This includes microscopic life (thousands-millions of types with tremendous variety of behaviors, etc), mineral life: gold, calcium, lead etc. also all with individualistic structure and components, flora & fauna, which numbers in the thousands or millions (Coral, Insect eating plants, strangler plants, shade trees, fruit trees, etc.) Insect life: camouflaging insects, thousands or millions of varieties. Aquatic life with thousands of varieties: poisonous jelly fish, whales, seahorses, etc. Mammal & human life…with thousands of unique varieties. The meteorological system, the universe…all this happened by accident from some (Unknown and undefined) ‘Big Bang.’ What and why did it ‘bang?’ Did it always exist? No answers, or course.
This is a: A. Arrogance: ‘There’ many Gods and one world’ thinking
B. Idolatry C. Money maker or a combination. Where such pronouncements made in a mental hospital using different parameters the doctor would classify it as delusional thinking or some such.
Folks, one might think that the builders of ‘The Tower of Babel’ were foolish to think one could hold up the heavens/sky to stop a flood. They were not foolish or stupid…just the opposite! However they were arrogant, which ‘blinds’ people. Perhaps they also coveted money and fame.
bhoffinger@aol.com
For 40 years the scientific establishment fooled the public into believing in ‘Piltdown Man.’ When it was announced only a few scientist were skeptical & the rest jubilant!
Much money was made, but who will return it to the gullible/desirous to believe, public?
I met a young man here in Crown Heights, Brooklyn NY who believes anthropologists & archaeologists re: ‘missing link’ findings, said: “They’re poor and work hard, therefore they’re honest.”
How many other Americans think like this?
If these ‘scientists’ (question, no?) were rich were they then to be trusted?
What do you think?
Thanks
Boruch Hoffinger:
It may all be a happenstance, but that determination will never be made in the scientific domain. However, in the post-normal scientific faith, the frame-based philosophy of science has been deprecated. Think outside the frame.