Scientists this morning have revealed the discovery of a new species of human relative, that they believe disposed of its dead deep in a cave and possibly even used fire.

Homo naledi is the latest addition to the human evolutionary tree and was discovered in the Cradle of Humankind, about 40 kilometres west of Johannesburg.

Naledi means star in Sesotho.

This latest find, believe scientists, is going to shake up that tree, as this species could have displayed behaviour that so far has only been seen in humans and Neanderthals.

Professor Lee Berger of Wits University, who led the team that made the discovery, revealed Homo naledi to the world this morning, at a press briefing at Maropeng, in the Cradle of Humankind.

Berger and the multinational team of scientists have been working on the find, since a single mandible was discovered in a remote chamber in the Rising Star Cave, in September 2013,

Spearthrower wrote:

It means this new hominin was alive at the same time as several other early human species, suggesting our family tree is more complicated than was thought.

Than who thought?

I've been studying this for nearly 2 decades, and it seems pretty damn complicated to me. Last time I tried to compile a list of all the candidate species of Hominidae was 3 years ago, and there's been nearly a dozen new discoveries since then. I heard about the above find pretty much right after it happened but it takes a few years to report, and there's some buzz going round that there's a major discovery that's been made, but it's being cautiously reviewed. There is excitement afoot in the palaeoanthropology world!

klazmon wrote:http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/sep/10/new-species-of-ancient-human-discovered-claim-scientists

"Bones found in South African cave are Homo naledi, a new species of ancient human relative, say researchers, but some experts are sceptical of find".

So it seems the sceptics think these fossils are examples of Homo erectus rather than a new species.

Spearthrower wrote:There are a lot of other differences too. It can't be an erectus. Of course, the more representatives we find of our family tree, the harder it's going to get to make clear distinctions between them.

Agrippina wrote:This was the University of the Witwatersrand's big announcement today:

Scientists this morning have revealed the discovery of a new species of human relative, that they believe disposed of its dead deep in a cave and possibly even used fire.

Veida wrote:They seem to have trouble with dating.

kennyc wrote:This is great stuff, particularly in that the cave appears to be a ritual burial site!

DarthHelmet86 wrote:That is how the cave looks now right? There is no chance that those small gaps have thinned over the years or an opening above the burial cave has closed in the time since it happened? It might be that it wasn't as hard to get in there at the time for the smaller homo naledi.

DarthHelmet86 wrote:Or the accretion of material blocking the passages.