The cover for the next issue of the “National Geographic” magazine will show the close up of the face of, “Home Naledi”, the new human species.
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But perhaps the strangest and most significant part of the find is that the remains were apparently carried with great effort through the narrow tunnels of the cave system to be laid to rest. Now, the researchers’ task is to interpret these fossils, and where they would fit in the human tree evolution. The Homo naledi people appear to have carried individuals deep into the cave system and deposited them in the chamber – possibly over generations.
Scientists aren’t exactly sure at this stage because they have been unable to accurately date the fossils after three different approaches failed. Its hands were superficially human-like, but the finger bones were locked into a curve as the Homo naledi needed to climb to survive from the wild animals.
This historic evolutionary discovery came from a team led by a person with a sweet nerdy job, paleoanthropologist Lee Berger, who dug up the remains of fossils they claim are early primitive relatives of humans.
Scientists in South Africa discovered 15 partial skeletons of what they say is a completely new human-like species, the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg said on Thursday.
Yet the feet of these early humans, which are nearly identical to those of modern man, combined with its relatively long legs reveal that the species was adapted to bipedal walking, said Professor Lee Berger of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, who led the expeditions that discovered and recovered the fossils.
Scientist have named the species Homo Naledi and have spent 700 hours reconstructing a head using bone scanning technology.
H. naledi had a brain the size of an orange and a slender body weighing about 100 pounds.
A brand-new species of human ancestor has been identified from a wealth of bones in a cave in South Africa.
This new species was dubbed “Homo naledi“.
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At two million years it would make a likely origin species for homo, he explained. As Professor Berger says: “This chamber has not given up all of its secrets”.
