Researchers find Homo naledi fossils are younger than initially thought
The Homo naledi fossils found in the Cradle of Humankind are far younger than scientists initially thought, suggesting the species may have lived alongside the first humans in Africa, researchers announced on Tuesday. Using six different dating techniques, an international team of scientists led by University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) paleoanthropologist Lee Berger, have pegged the age of the fossils at between 335,000 and 236,000 years old, a fraction of their initial estimate of about 2-million years. The startlingly young age of these primitive-brained hominins raises a host of questions, including how best to interpret archaeological finds that hold evidence of early modern human activities such as tool-making, said Berger. "We have to step back and say are they [H naledi] responsible for these activities, are they interacting with modern humans, is gene exchange possible? We just don’t know," he said in a telephone interview. The fact that they had identified one species — H ...
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