Naledi’s 2m-year dateline is history
Revelations that Homo Naledi is about 300,000 years old make the discovery less significant
Remember the hype over Homo Naledi, an apparently new species in the bipedal family tree, back in 2015?On that occasion, journalists were summoned to Maropeng, where they were shown bones found at the bottom of a cave. Their significance appeared to be that they showed evidence of advanced cultural practices such as burial.National Geographic went berserk with a cover story under the banner "Almost Human" and page upon page of speculative illustration of how these ancestors had lived their lives.The nation swooned, but the scientific community was not impressed. Palaeoanthropology professor Tim White said: "It is clear to see why [science journal] Nature rejected the many manuscripts submitted to [it], and post hoc explanation that this was because the papers were not compatible with Nature’s format is obfuscation of the fact that they failed to pass rigorous peer review."The newly described ‘species’ is an example of artificial species inflation in palaeoanthropology."One of the th...
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