Homo Naledi's Mysterious Burials

http://www.anthromedia.asia/news-details.php?nid=68 On September 13, 2013, cavers Rick Hunter and Steven Tucker discovered hominin fossils in the Dinaledi Chamber of South Africa's Rising Star Cave system. They returned on September 24 to take photographs, which they showed to South African paleoanthropologists Pedro Boshoff and Lee Berger on October 1. Berger organized an excavation team, including Hunter and Tucker, known as the Underground Astronauts. The Dinaledi Chamber is about 80 meters from the main cave entrance, accessible via a 12-meter vertical drop. The main passage leading to the chamber narrows to 10 inches – 1 foot 8 inches at its narrowest point. The excavation yielded over 1,550 bone fragments from at least fifteen individuals, including nine immature and six adult individuals. These fossils included various anatomical elements, such as parts of the skull, jaw, ribs, teeth, limbs, and inner ear bones. Some elements were articulated or nearly articulated, including a nearly complete skull with the jawbone and nearly complete hands and feet. This collection represents a diverse range of individuals of both sexes and various age groups, making it the most extensive assemblage of associated fossil hominins found in Africa. The holotype specimen, DH1, includes a partial male calvaria, a partial maxilla, and a nearly complete jawbone. In 2015, Berger and colleagues officially named this new species Homo naledi, with "naledi" meaning "star" in the Sotho language, referring to the Rising Star Cave where the remains were found. In 2017, additional hominin remains, including two adults and a child, were reported in the Lesedi Chamber of the same cave by John Hawks and colleagues, expanding our understanding of this ancient hominin population. Homo naledi, displays a combination of characteristics resembling both contemporary Homo species and ancestral Australopithecus, indicating a form of mosaic evolution. Notably, they possessed a small cranial capacity ranging from 465 to 610 CC, in stark contrast to modern humans with capacities of more than 1200. On average, Homo naledi individuals stood at about 4 ft 9 inches tall and weighed approximately 39.7 kg resulting in a low encephalization quotient of 4.5. Despite their small brains, their brain anatomy appeared similar to contemporary Homo, suggesting potential cognitive complexity.