Newly discovered species 'Homo naledi' discovered in a cave in South Africa
A group of scientists discovered bones of what is possibly a relative of modern humans in a South African cave. The discovery was announced yesterday when eLife posted the scientists' journal. "Homo naledi," as what the researchers called it, were found in the cave of the Rising Star found in the Cradle of Humanity world heritage site, just outside the city of Johannesburg.
According to Lee Berger, a University of Witwatersrand professor, they have found other finds before, but when a group of amateur cavers and geologists came to his house with a small fossilized jawbone in 2013, he knew it was something big.
After two years, his team found different bones, infants, kids, adults, and elderly people that have suggested that this species appears to have buried its dead kind. It was previously thought that only humans have this behavior of disposing its dead. They also believed that the "naledi" also used to light fire, since the underground burial chamber is located 30 meters below.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"There is no damage from predators, there is no sign of a catastrophe. We had to come to the inevitable conclusion that Homo naledi, a non-human species of hominid, was deliberately disposing of its dead in that dark chamber. Why, we don't know," Berger said when asked about the remains during his interview with CNN.
He added that these species had taken a great risk in order to bury its dead. The remains have not been dated to see how old these are, but the earliest records of the first human burials were about 100,000 years ago. "We have just encountered another species that perhaps thought about its own mortality," the professor added. "It absolutely questions what makes us human. And I don't think we know anymore what does," he said.
"It is that extreme and perhaps that influential in this stage of our history," Berger finally said.
