An international collaboration of anthropologists led by Lee Berger of the University of Whitewatersrand in South Africa, based on a large number of remains found in a cave near Johannesburg, described a new species of man.
Excavations were carried out in the Rising Star Cave, located 50 kilometers from the capital of South Africa.
As reported by Interfax with reference to Science, the new species was named Homo naledi - from the word "star" in the local language of Soto.
A total of 1,550 skeletal fragments belonging to 15 individuals were found (this is an exceptionally large amount of material per job compared to the usual practice in anthropology). The excavations continued from 2013 to 2014. Over the past year, the team has analyzed the anatomical features of the buried.
Homo naledi looks like representatives of the genus Homo sapiens and differs only in insufficient brain development. “It's incredibly amazing to see a primitive human species with such a small brain,” said Lee Berger, professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
In turn, the site of the journal Nature notes that in the Rising Star Cave, scientists have found a huge pit, at the bottom of which lay just a gigantic amount of the remains of ancient people, to which Berger's group could not get close because of the almost steep slopes of the pit and the extremely small width of the manhole - just 20 centimeters.
From left to right, a comparison of the skulls of different types of ancient people: Skillful Man - Erect Man - Man of Flores (Flores Island) - Man Star
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For this reason, the South African scientist turned to the general public on the global network for help, and a week later he had several volunteer speleologists and fellow paleontologists who helped the scientists extract the bones from the cave.
According to the authors of the articles, Homo naledi are close relatives of Homo habilis and Homo Rudolfi, and they claim to be the direct ancestor of our kind. This is supported by the fact that the legs of the "people-stars" were adapted to upright posture, and the hands had an almost human structure.
On the other hand, the small volume of the cranium - about 460 cubic centimeters - and the arrangement of the pelvic bones makes Homo naledi akin to Australopithecines, not humans.
Berger admits that Homo naledi may be the oldest member of our genus, a descendant of the most "advanced" Australopithecines, as indicated by its unusual anatomy. So far, such statements cannot be made, since for this, South African paleontologists need to prove that the age of this fossil is more than two million years.
The South African researcher hopes that his example will push other prominent paleoanthropologists towards "open science."
From left to right: Australopithecus "Lucy" - "Boy from Turkana" (type Man Erectus or Man Working) - Man Star