Abstract
More than 1500 fossils from the Rising Star cave system in South Africa have been assigned to a new human species, Homo naledi, which displays a unique combination of primitive and derived traits throughout the skeleton.
Highlights
When the recovery of fossil hominin remains from the Rising Star cave system near Johannesburg in South Africa was widely publicised in 2013 and 2014, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who thought that the coverage had more hype than substance
These remains have been assigned to a new human species, which has been named Homo naledi
If the H. naledi fossils are less than 100,000 years old, it would mean that it survived until relatively recently, just like Homo floresiensis far away in Indonesia
Summary
These remains have been assigned to a new human species, which has been named Homo naledi. The small brain size, curved fingers and form of the shoulder, trunk and hip joint resemble the prehuman australopithecines and the early human species Homo habilis. To my eye, the material looks most similar to the smallbodied examples of Homo erectus from Dmanisi in Georgia, which have been dated at ∼1.8 million years old (Lordkipanidze et al, 2013).
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