Two new ‘clues’ about Homo naledi may create more questions
Nineteen months after the discovery of 15 skeletons at the Cradle of Humankind sparked a worldwide fossil frenzy‚ two new pieces of the Homo naledi puzzle have emerged. The 1,500 bones found deep inside a cave system at the Sterkfontein site dumbfounded scientists‚ who were struck by Homo naledi’s unusual combination of features‚ the difficulty of dating the species‚ and the theory that it had buried its dead. The first surprising new clue to emerge is that after heated debate among some of the world’s top academic minds‚ Homo naledi has been dated at about 250‚000 years. Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London‚ a regular commentator on Homo naledi‚ told the New Scientist: "This is astonishingly young for a species that still displays primitive characteristics found in fossils about 2-million years old‚ such as the small brain size‚ curved fingers‚ and form of the shoulder‚ trunk and hip joint." The full research paper has not yet been published‚ but what this find me...
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