Scientists in South Africa have discovered a new human-like species as much as 3 million years old

[JakeStarkey]

15 ancient human-like skeletons have been discovered in a cave in Africa. The age has not yet been determined [not completed yet: but there are strong indications], but could be up to 3 million years old. This discovery is a *big* deal.

"Homo naledi is unlike any primitive human found in Africa. It has a tiny brain - about the size of a gorilla's and a primitive pelvis and shoulders. But it is put into the same genus as humans because of the more progressive shape of its skull, relatively small teeth, characteristic long legs and modern-looking feet."



New human-like species discovered in S Africa - BBC News
BBC.COM

 

[Pete7469]

When were you in South Africa?

 

[Sunni Man]

"Homo naledi is unlike any primitive human found in Africa. It has a tiny brain - about the size of a gorilla's and a primitive pelvis and shoulders.

Sounds like they dug up an ancient liberal. ......

 

[daws101]

"Homo naledi is unlike any primitive human found in Africa. It has a tiny brain - about the size of a gorilla's and a primitive pelvis and shoulders.

Sounds like they dug up an ancient liberal. ......

the w

"Homo naledi is unlike any primitive human found in Africa. It has a tiny brain - about the size of a gorilla's and a primitive pelvis and shoulders.

Sounds like they dug up an ancient liberal. ......

they searched for the remains of conservatives but all they found was coprolite

Coprolite
A coprolite is fossilized feces. Coprolites are classified as trace fossils as opposed to body fossils, as they give evidence for the animal's behaviour (in this case, diet) rather than morphology. The name is derived from the Greek words κόπρος (kopros, meaning "dung") and λίθος (lithos, meaning "stone"). They were first described by William Buckland in 1829.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

New species of extinct human found in cave may rewrite history


Thousands of bones of Homo naledi recovered in South Africa's chamber of secrets show unique features – and may be the relics of an ancient burial site




It’s an anatomical mosaic
John Hawks


ONE thousand four hundred bones, 140 teeth, belonging to at least 15 individual skeletons – and that’s just what was recovered in a single short field session.


The early human fossil record isn’t normally this rich. For a century, palaeoanthropologists have generally learned to make do with slim pickings – part of a face here, a jawbone fragment there. Now, from the depths of a cave in South Africa, has come a monster cache of hominin bones from a previously unknown early species of our own genus, Homo.


This really is an amazing find.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

 

[waltky]

Wonder if there could be two lines to homo sapien?...

South Africa's new human ancestor sparks race row
17 Sept.`15 - Some prominent South Africans have dismissed the discovery of a new human ancestor as a racist theory designed to cast Africans as "subhuman", an opinion that resonates in a country deeply bruised by apartheid.

"No one will dig old monkey bones to back up a theory that I was once a baboon. Sorry," said Zwelinzima Vavi, former general secretary of the powerful trade union group Cosatu, a faithful ally of the ruling African National Congress (ANC). "I am no grandchild of any ape, monkey or baboon -- finish en klaar (Afrikaans for "that's it")," he said on his Twitter account, which is followed by more than 300,000 people. His comments were backed by the South African Council of Churches (SACC), which was historically involved in the fight against apartheid.

Vavi recalled that when South Africa was under apartheid rule he was a target of racist remarks: "I been also called a baboon all my life so did my father and his fathers." Apartheid ended in 1994 after Nelson Mandela was elected as the country's first black president in a democratic South Africa. Vavi's comments came after last week's discovery of Homo naledi, described by scientists as a new distant ancestor of humans. The discovery of the ancient relative generated a huge amount of international interest.

The skeleton of Homo Naledi, a newly discovered human ancestor displayed during the unveiling of the discovery in MaropengThe skeleton of Homo Naledi, a newly discovered human ancestor displayed during the unveiling of the discovery in Maropeng

But the South African backlash has perplexed people around the world at a time when Darwin's theory of evolution is widely accepted as fact. It "breathes new life into paranoia," said prominent British biologist Richard Dawkins on his Twitter account this week. "Whole point is we're all African apes." Lee Berger, an American working at Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand and overseeing the Homo naledi dig, tried to keep his distance from the charged debate, though he did specifically clarify that man doesn't descend from baboons. "For our scientists the search for human origins is one that celebrates all of humankind's common origins on the continent of Africa," he told AFP. "The science is not asking questions of religion nor challenging anyone's belief systems, it is simply exploring the fossil evidence for the origins of our species."

A reconstruction of a Homo naledi face by paleoartist John Gurche at his studio in Trumansburg

The body of Homo naledi resembles that of a modern man, but researchers say its orange-sized brain places it closer to Australopithecus, a group of extinct hominids that walked on two legs and lived around 2 million years ago. Some 1,550 fossils were unearthed in the "Rising Star", a cave located in the "Cradle of Humankind", a site 50 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg that has proven over the years to be a rich source for palaeontologists. The bones haven't been dated, but researchers claim they will reveal more about the transition between the primitive Australopithecus and the Homo genus, the family tree of our direct ancestor.

- 'Africans not respected'-[URL="http://[/quote]"]

http://news.yahoo.com/south-africas-human-ancestor-sparks-racial-row-064311102.html[/url][/quote]