Discovery Of Naledi Research Paper

The Rising Star Cave system is located in the Cradle of Humanity World Heritage Site above Johannesburg, South Africa. (Wilford) It was here that the now extinct Hominin species, Homo Naledi, was found. This discovery gave scientists great insight to the beginnings of the Genus Homo. The Homo Naledi is believed to be the link between Genus Homo and Genus Australopithecus. This site is regarded as an ancient, and possibly the first, burial grounds of the entirety of the Genus Homo. With the knowledge is is thought that our understanding of our ancestors is warped. Scientists used to think that our ancestors were at a much lower level of thinking than us, these ‘cave men’ were actually rather smart and self aware enough so that they had a burial site for their dead. How one skeleton was positioned and the fact that there was an ancient cougar paw with marks that showed the paw had been severed leads scientists to believe that this was a highly regarded person which entails the Homo Naledi to have a system of caste. (Townsley)

The history of life on earth goes back to millions of years. Many species and creatures evolved and changed through time, leading up to what we know today as, modern man. One of the creatures most similar to modern man is the Neanderthals; they are sometimes referred to as “early modern humans.”

Since Naledi has human and australopithecines features I think she should be placed 2-3 million years ago. I believe Naledi was an early Homo that was in the early stages of the body evolving. In the article This Face Changes the Human Story. But How? it states that “Parts of the skeletons looked astonishingly modern. But others were just as astonishingly primitive—in some cases, even more apelike than the australopithecines.” That means that in that certain group you had a mix of modern human looking and ape like creatures. They were most likely fond of each other like a family which is why they put them in what seems a burial site. If it is a burial site, then it must have been in that area for quite some time. Once all the bones were laid

Masters of the Planet is organized historically, and traces the diverse and complicated history of hominids over the past 8 million years. The book begins with the ancient origins of the hominid lineage, it outlines the rise of bipedal apes beginning with Australopithecus (including “Lucy”), the harsh life on the savannah, the multiple emergence from Africa, the spread of early "Homo" throughout the Old World continents, the misunderstood Neanderthals (our distant cousins) and finally the arrival of modern Homo sapiens.

kadabba came lasted from about 5.8 to 5.2 million years ago and the A. ramidus lasted from about 5.2 million years ago to about 4.2 million years ago. The A. ramidus possessed a pelvis and limbs that were slightly less ape like, the possession of these things showed that apes were coming close to being fully bipedal. The fourth genus in human evolution was named Australopithecus, this genus marked a key point in human evolution and has five members that that are known of but only three that are ancestors of humans and they include the anamensis, the afarensis, and the africanus. The A. anamensis existed from around 4.2 to 3.9 million years ago and possessed and expanded tibia which shows that they were fully bipedal. With the A. afarensis came smaller canine teeth and a body that was fully adapted for walking on two feet for long periods of time, it lasted from about 3.9 to 2.95 million years

A longstanding view of human evolution holds that the first hominids to leave Africa did so with the help of bigger brains, longer legs and fancier tools than those of their predecessors. That scenario suffered a major blow a couple of years ago, however, when paleontologists working in Dmanisi, Georgia unearthed the oldest human remains yet found outside of Africa---two 1.7-million-year-old skulls belonging to early members of our genus, Homo--and discovered primitive tools alongside them. Now a new finding may topple another pillar of the theory. According to a report in the current issue of the journal Science,researchers working at the same site have recovered a third skull--one that housed a surprisingly small brain.

According to physical evidence, and theories, scholars have concluded upon a whole hypothesis. Based on their knowledge and belief, modern humans diverged from Homo sapiens between 200,000 and 150,000 years ago specifically in Africa, that between 125,000 and 60,000 years ago members of Homo sapiens left Africa, and that these

Modern anthropologists and paleontologists are in relative agreement regarding how long modern humans, Homo sapiens, have been in existence. According to mainstream science, the popular belief is that the cultural and technological history of our species is confined to the past 12,000 years. This figure is a culmination based on what we know about evolution and what we have been able to gather through fossil analyzation and dating of artifacts and human remains. Although the subject of human antiquity, also referred to as human origins, does not prompt a great deal of debate there may actually be the need for some. A reexamination of that humans have only existed a mere 12,000 years should be done as there may be evidence to support a

The first Neanderthal fossils found in Europe, a fragmented child’s cranium in Belgium in 1830, and an adult cranium in Gibraltar, were not immediately recognized as a divergent kind of human. Only in 1856 after a partial skeleton was found in a cave in the Neander Valley in Germany it became clear that these fossils belonged to an extinct human and our closest evolutionary relative (Hublin and Pääbo, 2006). Since then, questions about their relationship with modern humans have been fiercely debated between anthropologists. But what attracts most interest from scientists and popular media is the possibility of hybridization between Neanderthals and modern humans if, in other words, they were a genetically different specie or a

This chapter starts from the beginning, explaining the evolution of the first human ancestors, seven million years ago. Our closest living relatives are the gorilla, chimpanzee, and the bonobo. We all originated in Africa, the first to leave being the Homo erectus. Neanderthals have always been depicted as brainless, wild, careless creatures, but evidence shows they actually cared for their sick and buried their dead. "The Great Leap Forward" is what Diamond calls the earliest signs of standardized tools, jewelry, bone tools, and more. This great leap was 50,000 years ago. Also at this time is the spread of hominids to New Guinea and Australia. Large animal species that were not evolved to defend themselves against such predators were wiped

A new hominin species- Homo naledi, was discovered in the Rising Star cave of South Africa. Approximately 1,500 fossil components were unearthed belonging to roughly 15 individuals. The finding of these fossils suggest that early hominins may have deliberately placed the bodies of the dead in impenetrable cave chambers as a sort of ritualized practice. According to Dr. Berger the fossils found, anatomically display a brain closely resembling the size of an orange. Berger also estimates the fossils to be around 2.5-2.8 million years old at the most. Scientists concur that the fossils display modern-shaped jaws, teeth, and feet.

Between 1965 and 1983, Swartkrans cave was carefully reinvestigated by another South African paleoanthropologist, C. K. Brain, using more thorough

Long time ago, some curious human relatives, as if Homo species or a Nutcracker Man whose miniature forms resembled the hobbits on Lord of the Rings, roamed Earth. Scientists are still finding indication that how modern humans crisscrossed paths through some of our lineages, that fossil are proposing (Figure 1). Homo sapiens might have had gender with Neanderthals and straight towards a freshly discovered species called the Denisovans. In the news and features, mostly human evolution and origins are covered, also enlightening the secrecies of humanity, specifics on ancestors of human and the evolutionary phases that might led to modern hominids (Sarich et al., 1967).

The author of this article wrote about a recent discovery of the fossils of a new human-like species that are sparking controversy among several paleoanthropologists. According to the article, the remains were retrieved by a group of slim excavators from the inside of a deep South African cave. The age of the bones were found unclear due to the fact that it had been buried in sediments of numerous layers. Close examinations showed that the fossils had the same traits as several other species in the genus Homo. The skeletons had similar skulls, legs, and ankles while other traits such as their fingers and rib cages were slightly different to accommodate other methods of movement. Paleontologists from various parts of the world have reasoned whether or not they believe that the discovered remains had any actual relation to the human species. Nonetheless, the researchers believe that any new information from the bones could help them find out its origin, age, distribution, and deposition into the cave.

Forget about Hollywood’s latest celebrities, because there’s a new star in town. Scientists around the world are talking about the recently publicized discovery of Homo naledi, or “star man”, a newly discovered species thought to be one of the most primitive members of the genus Homo. Thousands of these ancient species’ fossils were found in late 2013 in the underground Rising Star Cave, which is part of the Cradle of Humanity World Heritage Site in South Africa. The team that made the discovery was led by Lee Berger, a professor at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.