An international research team, which includes NYU anthropologists Scott Williams and Myra Laird, has discovered a new species of a human relative. Homo naledi, uncovered in a cave outside of Johannesburg, South Africa, sheds light on the diversity of our genus and possibly its origin.
"This discovery is unprecedented in the sheer number of hominins collected from such a small area in the virtual absence of other animal remains," says Williams, an assistant professor in NYU's Department of Anthropology. "That makes this site unique. Moreover, the announcement describes only the tip of the iceberg of analyses that will come, and we hope that is also true of the cave itself and the material that it still holds."
The team's findings, which are published in two papers in the journal eLife, were announced by South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand, the National Geographic Society, and the South African National Research Foundation.
The discovery also indicates that H. naledi intentionally deposited bodies of its dead in a remote cave chamber--behaviors previously thought limited to humans.
Age uncertain. Could be as old as early Pleistocene (2.1MYA) or as young as late Pleistocene (100kya)
John Hawks is the second author. When he puts up a post on it, I'll link, too. Someone ought to give him a hard time and ask if this isn't a diseased Homo sapiens.
