Homo naledi: a new species of ancient people discovered. What was he like
This week, a group of Russian scientists presented in Moscow a scientific reconstruction of the head of this mysterious creature, discovered in South Africa by American paleontologist Lee Berger. The scientist presented one cast of the skull of Homo naledi to his Russian colleagues.
The fruits of scientific work were presented on Sunday at the National Research Technological University "MISiS". Homo naledi is half man, half monkey. However, instead of shedding light on the origins of humanity, it turned out to be a link that does not fit well into the evolutionary chain, explains Russian anthropologist Stanislav Drobyshevsky.
“Homo naledi combines some features that are more characteristic of primates, such as the brain, with the latest signs of evolutionary development, in particular teeth and feet, which bring them closer to modern humans,” says Drobyshevsky. “The naledi are extremely unique. Their height was about one and a half meters, the brain weighed from 400 to 600 grams, just in the interval between Australopithecines (upright walking primates) and Homo habilis, which is considered the earliest man.
When they first analyzed the bones of fifteen individuals found in the deep South African Rising Star cave, scientists initially thought they were the remains of early humans who lived about three million years ago. Their surprise knew no bounds when dating revealed that Homo naledi lived only 300 thousand years ago, at a time when Rhodesian man (Homo rhodesiensis) - one of the closest to modern man - was spreading throughout the South African steppes.
“The coexistence of these two species on the same territory proves that the evolution of humanity could have followed a completely different path,” says Drobyshevsky. Other species of humans lived during the same era, but they were not as different from each other as humans and chimpanzees (as in the case of Australopithecus and Homo habilis), or they lived on different continents or in territories separated by insurmountable geographical barriers.
Context
Finds in China change the history of Homo sapiens
BBC Russian Service 10/15/2015What is in us from our primitive ancestors?
Polityka 08/09/2015Training Like a Caveman: Arnold Jacobs Goes Primal
The Daily Beast 04/11/2012 It remains a mystery how Homo naledi and Rhodesian man, whom some scientists classify as Homo sapiens, interacted with each other. “They could either cooperate with each other or quarrel. There are genes of some African peoples, such as the Pygmies or Bushmen, that still have not been deciphered,” says the Russian anthropologist. Just as there is something of Neanderthal in the DNA of European sapiens, the undeciphered links of the genetics of African peoples could be the legacy of Homo naledi, although in order to solve this mystery, it will be necessary to decipher the genome of a new species.On the other hand, Naledi's brain, comparable in size to the brain of the very first man, and his chest, which, like primates, is not adapted to speech, indicate that Naledi's intellectual abilities were poorly developed. Their only cultural artifacts can be found there, next to their remains, in a cave more than 16 meters deep, which can only be entered through a very narrow hole 20 centimeters wide, which excludes from the very beginning the possibility that they lived there. The most likely, according to Drobyshevsky, is that the low-growing naledi buried their dead there, but not as a ritual, but for hygienic reasons.
The jaw and teeth of these hominids are even smaller than those of modern humans, which refutes one of the main statements of the theory of evolution. Until now, it was believed that the size of teeth decreased during human evolution. Drobyshevsky says that the curvature of the fingers, greater than those of modern apes, on the contrary, proves that at some point naledi could involute to adapt to their environment.
Drobyshevsky says that, despite the shape of the naledi’s hand, almost the same as that of a modern person, and the ability to produce tools, the bend of the fingers refutes all previously existing theories. New data allows scientists to understand that Naledi walked upright and used tools, like the first man, but could also climb trees like a monkey. “Some of the tools that scientists had previously found and attributed to sapiens could in fact belong to Naledi. Nothing from the Naledi culture has come down to us, but the shape of their hands indicates that they could produce tools, although their brains were small,” says Drobyshevsky.
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On September 10, 2015, another paleoanthropological sensation broke out. A presentation of a new human fossil took place in South Africa. An article about the discovery was published on the same day in the journal eLife. The man was named Homo naled. In the local Sotho language, the word means "Star".
It turns out interesting - “Star Man”. However, the “Star Man” unexpectedly turned out to be a degenerate. Nobody expected this! But first things first.
Exactly two years ago, on September 13, 2013, the bones of these people were discovered by two sports cavers Stephen Tucker and Rick Hunter in the Rising Star Cave near Johannesburg. The information was clearly timed to coincide with the second anniversary of the discovery.
Rice. 1. Kiss with a degenerate. South African Vice President Cyrille Ramaphora kisses the skull of Homo Naledi (Star Man) at the presentation of the find on September 10, 2015. Photo from the presentation.
So, in the Rising Star Cave (South Africa) another transitional link between man and the monkey Homo naled was discovered. This is a man, one and a half meters tall with a very small brain, approximately like a chimpanzee’s 460 - 560 cubic meters. cm.
Probably, the brain volume was greatly reduced in relation to the original one. Homo naledi has a lot of human characteristics like modern people: long legs, a foot with an instep and two arches, transverse and longitudinal, small human teeth.
Rice. 2. Reconstruction of Homo naledi. Made by artist John Gurche. Narrow shoulders with curved collarbones are clearly shown. This is a sign of tree climbing. National Geographic Magazine October 2015.
But this small-brained man has already adapted to tree climbing. He retains the human morphology of the hand with an enlarged thumb, but already has elongated and curved phalanges of the other fingers of the hand. This is a clear sign of tree climbing.
In other words, from man to monkey, and not vice versa!
The age of the find is not determined. The skeletal bones of 15 individuals (what was left of them) were simply lying on the floor of the cave. And no one touched them for maybe several million years. Degenerate people climbed into a dark cave at the risk of their lives and remained there. It is assumed that these monkey people carried out the ritual burial of their fellow tribesmen in the cave. It is still unclear when the transition to tree climbing occurred.
Rice. 3. Homo naledi brush with curved phalanges.
Usually transition links are not preserved. But here we have a unique situation. The bones were preserved due to the fact that subsequently no one else could penetrate into the blind compartment of this cave, called Dinaledi, neither animals nor people.
Homo Naledi was the first to clearly and clearly refute Engels's labor theory (Dialectics of Nature) and the simial (monkey) theory of anthropogenesis (Darwin, Buffon).
Homo naledi is one of many “transitional forms” from upright walking to tree climbing. There were many such forms in the past. It is known about Ardipithecus ramidus (6 million years old) Ethiopia, Sahelanthropus Chadian (7 million years old) Republic of Chad.
Thus, multiple involutions took place in the past: the transformation of humans into monkeys. The simial (monkey) theory of anthropogenesis should be discarded as untenable. Everything was exactly the opposite!
The scheme of involutionary variability also works for australopithecus, who lived in the period 4.5 - 1 million years ago from modern times, as well as the most ancient, ancient and modern humans.
“New” people who appeared on Earth many times, obviously in small numbers, are not recorded in any way in the paleoanthropological record. Finding the remains of several dozen, even hundreds and thousands of “first” people on Earth, or rather, in the earth, is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
But when the human population adapts to the conditions of earthly existence, multiplies and develops different habitats, then the chance of finding at least one incomplete skull or one half-destroyed bone increases. But even these chances are still not enough. A stable population of people must exist in a certain area for a long time. And the conditions for preserving their remains must be extremely favorable.
However, people tend to bury the dead, or even destroy the remains of the dead, for example, by burning them. This significantly reduces the chance of finding the skeletons of ancient and ancient people. Soil acids, microorganisms and soil animals will destroy the corpse and, after some time, the skeletal bones.
Rice. 4. Two stages of involutionary variability among intelligent people who populated the Earth many times and the illusion of evolution.
Even if human bones find themselves in favorable conditions for preserving remains (caves, karst crevices, asphalt and oil puddles, swamps, mineral deposits, permafrost, glaciers, etc.), they do not have time to fossilize and are destroyed immediately under the influence of external aggressive factors after temporary bone preservation conditions cease.
The remains of Homo naledi were preserved thanks to a unique set of circumstances. A narrow hole led into the cave compartment (Dinaledi) where they were kept, and no one (neither animals nor humans) penetrated into it for a long time. If the bones had lain in this cave for tens of millions of years or more, they would inevitably have collapsed along with the cave itself. The remains would have perished if animals and water had begun to penetrate into the isolated cave compartment, if the microclimate there had changed, etc.
Rice. 5. Plan of the Rising Star cave with a blind hall called Dinaledi, into which a very narrow hole leads. National Geographic Magazine October 2015.
That is why we do not have human remains dating back tens or hundreds of millions of years. The ecological and behavioral status of a person does not contribute to the preservation of his remains for a long time.
People usually exist on this planet for a short moment in terms of geological time and their number is small. Then people begin to rapidly degrade. The population of human degenerates multiplies and changes, looking for a favorable eco-niche for its life. After this, she can already leave behind a small trace in the form of remains that have not yet been petrified, but have been exposed to temporary favorable conditions. Thus, human degenerates are much more likely to leave a mark behind them than their human ancestors.
Thus, the bones of the Flores man, nicknamed by journalists the hobbit due to his short stature and caricatured appearance, did not have time to petrify. Flores man lived 74 - 13 thousand years ago.
Its remains were discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003. The bones were like “wet blotting paper” and were falling apart right in the hands of paleoanthropological researchers. They had to be secured from destruction with a special compound. It is absolutely clear that these bones could not have been preserved in the ground for a long time.
Flores Man was a little over one meter tall and had a head the size of a grapefruit (380 cc). He showed signs of degradation.
Rice. 6. Flores man as a degenerate.
The same can be said about the recently discovered Homo naledi, whose presentation of the new species took place on September 10, 2015 in South Africa. He could be called a “foolish man.” He has a catastrophically small brain volume (560 - 460 cubic cm).
Personally, I prefer to call Homo naledi the "South African anthropopithecus" (ape-man) as opposed to the Javan Pithecanthropus (ape-man) discovered by Eugene Dubois in 1890 on the island of Java. By the way, the brain volume of Pithecanthropus was twice as large as that of Homo naledi (900 - 1200 cubic cm).
The main feature is that the naledi retained the morphology of a person: long legs, a foot with an instep, a hand with an enlarged and developed thumb. But the remaining fingers of the hand were curved and had long phalanges. This speaks of tree climbing. The shoulders resembled those of apes.
This is how the transformation of a man into a monkey occurs! We do not know how this transformation ended. What kind of monkey did Naledi turn into and did he turn into one at all? We don’t even know exactly when this degenerate lived. The main thing is that Naledi refuted Engels’ labor theory (F. Engels “Dialectics of Nature” 1882).
According to Engels, the hand of an upright monkey gradually turned into the working hand of a person. Here we see the reverse process: the “working hand” of a person turns into the hand of a monkey! It would seem that Engels is not very popular today, but there is a whole taxon of ancient people, Homo ergaster (working man). One must think that anthropologists to this day share Engels' ideas. And only a unique case helped us discover these remains as a “transitional form” - but not between a monkey and a man, but between a man and a tree-climbing creature.
Homo naledi could also be called “non-working man.” But this is not to be expected from evolutionists. As pioneers, they are always faithful to the work and behests of the great Darwin and Buffon with their simial (monkey) theory of anthropogenesis - humanization.
The importance of the discovery of Homo naledi cannot be overestimated. For the first time, an almost complete skeleton of a degenerate was discovered. This is a rare stroke of luck for a paleoanthropologist. All other skeletal remains of ancient and ancient people are extremely fragmentary. This gave evolutionists the opportunity for all sorts of speculation.
In particular, they have long attributed the Australopithecus foot to a transitional stage between the ape foot with the opposable big toe and the human foot with the adducted big toe parallel to the other toes. However, no real Australopithecus foot bones were discovered at that time. They fantasized and declared it to be true.
Now it has become clear that human degenerates have completely human feet, and the first to begin to change is also a completely human hand. It adapts to tree climbing much earlier than the foot.
Australopithecines, which are considered the ancestors of modern humans, in fact, are not. They are only bipedal degenerates who have retained their straight legs from their human ancestors. They have also been shown to have adaptations to tree climbing. But they went a different way. In this sense, they are somewhat reminiscent of the ancestors of early and predatory dinosaurs - therapods, who also involuted on their own two feet, and did not climb trees, like monkeys, or go down on all fours, as animals did.
Rice. 7. Exhibition of fossil degradants (reconstruction) from left to right: female Australopithecus afarensis - “Lucy” - 3.2 million years ago; “boy from Turkana” – 1.6 million years ago, Homo naledi – “Man – Star” – age not determined. The naledi has clearly visible narrow shoulders with crooked collarbones, a characteristic sign of tree climbing. National Geographic Magazine October 2015.
Modern man (Cro-Magnon in the broad sense of the word), who appeared on the planet 70–60 thousand years ago, is fundamentally different from his predecessors.
The modern human population has probably never lost contact with its cosmic handlers to degrade. Although, who knows...
Alexander Belov, paleoanthropologist
Recently, numerous bones of a previously unknown species of primitive people, called Homo naledi. By many signs H. naledi reminiscent of Habilis, other early Homo and even australopithecines, which suggested a very respectable age of the finds. However, dating obtained by several independent methods in different laboratories showed that these people lived only 335-236 thousand years ago, at the same time as much more advanced representatives of the human race. Data on new bone finds has also been published. H. naledi, among which there is a well-preserved skull, in another corner of the same cave. All the bones clearly belonged to people from the same population. New data make significant adjustments to existing ideas about anthropogenesis.
Opening Homo naledi has become the loudest sensation in paleoanthropology over the past two or three years (see: Man from Dinaledi - a new species of primitive people, “Elements”, 09/14/2015). However, it was still impossible to truly assess the significance of the discovery, since almost the most important thing remained unknown - the age of the finds.
Let us recall that in morphology H. naledi primitive “australopithecine” characteristics are combined with advanced “human” ones (a detailed analysis of the anatomy of the new species is given in articles by S. V. Drobyshevsky on the website “Anthropogenesis.ru”, see links at the end of the news). If the evolution of our ancestors were linear, as many thought 30–40 years ago, that is, it would represent a continuous progressive development from Australopithecus to Homo sapiens, That Homo naledi it would be logical to place somewhere near the habilis. In this case, the expected age H. naledi- about one and a half or two million years.
However, today it is firmly established that the evolution of hominids was not linear at all. On the branch of the evolutionary tree that includes forms closer to modern humans than to chimpanzees, there were many forks and dead-end branches. The direction of specialization in different lineages could vary greatly, and “evolutionarily advanced” (very different from the common ancestor) species often coexisted with “primitive” (which retained more ancestral features).
It follows from this that it is simply impossible to determine the real age of a particular hominid species only by its morphology. H. naledi could be an ancient representative of one of the branches of the early radiation of the genus Homo. He could even turn out to be the direct ancestor of erectus and sapiens, although based on a combination of primitive and advanced characteristics H. habilis better suited for this role. He might just as well have turned out to be a dead-end branch or a “living fossil”, retaining primitive features at a time when other representatives of the human race had already advanced far along the path of enlarged brains and more complex behavior. Similar examples were known before. The most striking of them is the famous “hobbits” from the island of Flores, who had a monkey-sized brain, but lived relatively recently (see: New ancient remains of people from the island of Flores indicate the relationship of “hobbits” with erectus, “Elements”, 06/08/2016) .
Therefore, anthropologists were impatiently waiting for at least some dating to appear. H. naledi- if, of course, these bones, found in an unusual geological context, can be dated at all. And finally, this long-awaited information has been obtained and published. May 9 in the magazine eLife three large articles appeared at once by the South African paleoanthropologist Lee Rogers Berger and his colleagues, the discoverers Homo naledi, with invaluable new information about this mysterious representative of the human race.
Sediments containing bones H. naledi, formed inside the cave and represent an unconsolidated (unfossilized, loose) fine-grained rock with interlayers of sinter formations (see Flowstone). The article presents the results of a comprehensive and very scrupulous analysis of these deposits.
It was possible to date the lime deposits using the uranium-thorium method (see: Uranium-thorium dating). The results obtained in different laboratories coincided quite accurately with each other. Analysis of many samples formed both before and after the bones entered the cave H. naledi, made it possible to understand the history of the formation of cave deposits. In particular, it became clear that wet periods, when the deposits formed, alternated with relatively dry ones. These and other details revealed during the study helped scientists step by step select and refine analytical approaches, gradually reducing uncertainty in the main question of the age of the bones.
Uranium-thorium dental analysis H. naledi, as well as a baboon tooth that came into the cave much earlier, helped decipher the multi-stage history of the introduction of uranium into fossil teeth, which occurred during wet periods. The introduction of uranium into bones after burial leads to under-dating (rejuvenation), so this approach ultimately only showed that teeth H. naledi probably older than 70 thousand years and with a high probability older than 200 thousand years.
The combined method of uranium series and electron spin resonance was applied to the same teeth (see Electron spin resonance dating; R. Grün, H. P. Schwarcz, 1988. ESR dating of tooth enamel: Coupled correction for U-uptake and U-series disequilibrium), and for host rock samples - the method of optically stimulated luminescence dating (see Optically stimulated luminescence). These approaches produced the most reliable results. The sinter layers were also subjected to paleomagnetic analysis (see: paleomagnetic dating). Other dating methods that researchers tried to use, including radiocarbon and uranium-lead, turned out to be unsuitable for one reason or another for this material. In particular, radiocarbon dating turned out to be impossible because collagen was not preserved in the bones (and later it became clear that the bones were too old for radiocarbon dating).
As a result, the authors had at their disposal a variety of datings obtained by several independent methods both for bones and for different layers of cave deposits, some of which were formed obviously before, and others after, the formation of the bone-bearing layer. Analysis of the entire body of evidence led the authors to conclude that the age of the bones is almost certainly in the range of 236,000 to 335,000 years.
Thus, the Dinaledi people lived much later than their morphology would suggest. They were a kind of living fossils - primitive contemporaries of advanced late representatives of the human race, not inferior to us in brain size, mastering fire and sophisticated (Late Acheulean and Middle Paleolithic) stone processing technologies. Until now, it was believed that during this period (see Middle Stone Age) representatives of only one evolutionary line of later stones lived in Africa. Homo, which included the direct ancestors of modern people, and the ancestors of the Neanderthals and Denisovans had already separated from this line and went to Eurasia. All other, more primitive African hominids (Australopithecus, Paranthropus and early species of the genus Homo) were considered completely extinct by this time. Now the picture has become significantly more complicated.
The authors do not exclude the possibility of hybrid origin. H. naledi. There is nothing impossible about this. Interspecific hybridization is widespread in mammals, including apes (see: The ancestors of modern chimpanzees and bonobos repeatedly crossed with each other, “Elements,” 11/01/2016). Apparently, it takes millions of years for complete reproductive incompatibility to develop between divergent mammalian species. Therefore, it is possible that all Pleistocene Homo could interbreed with each other, or even with australopithecines. Judging by the mosaic morphology H. naledi, this species could be a hybrid between some advanced Homo and late australopithecines. It is not clear how to test this hypothesis. Attempts to extract DNA from bones H. naledi have not yet been successful.
According to the authors, H. naledi had to make stone tools. This is supported by the advanced structural features of their hands and fingers, which bring them closer to Neanderthals and sapiens and absent from Australopithecus and Habilis, as well as small teeth (there is an opinion that the reduction of teeth in our ancestors was partly due to the use of tools that made powerful teeth unnecessary ). It turns out that some of the tools hitherto unconditionally attributed to African erectus or “archaic sapiens” could in fact have been made by other hominids.
Reasoning about behavior H. naledi, Berger and his colleagues do not ignore the important question of how human remains could have gotten into the hard-to-reach corners of the karst cave. There are no signs of bone transport by groundwater. There are no bones of other large animals there, which means that the cave was unlikely to be a natural trap where people and animals could accidentally fall and die. The bones bear no marks from either predator teeth or stone tools, although bones found in other South African caves often bear such markings. Apparently, the accumulations of human remains in the Dinaledi and Lesedi chambers cannot be attributed to predators, scavengers or cannibals. According to the authors, the most likely explanation for these clusters is purposeful human behavior. The authors seriously suggest that H. naledi could bury their relatives in the cave.
One way or another, the discoveries of Berger and his colleagues should attract the closest attention of paleoanthropologists to the South African Middle Pleistocene. Therefore, we can hope that new data will soon confirm or refute the extravagant hypotheses put forward by the discoverers Homo naledi.
Sources:
1) Paul H. G. M. Dirks, Eric M. Roberts, Hannah Hilbert-Wolf, Jan D. Kramers, John Hawks, Anthony Dosseto, Mathieu Duval, Marina Elliott, Mary Evans, Rainer Grün, John Hellstrom, Andy I. R. Herries, Renaud Joannes-Boyau , Tebogo V. Makhubela, Christa J. Placzek, Jessie Robbins, Carl Spandler, Jelle Wiersma, Jon Woodhead, Lee R. Berger. The age of Homo naledi and associated sediments in the Rising Star Cave, South Africa // eLife. 2017. 6:e24231.
2) John Hawks, Marina Elliott, Peter Schmid, Steven E. Churchill, Darryl J. de Ruiter, Eric M. Roberts, Hannah Hilbert-Wolf, Heather M. Garvin, Scott A. Williams, Lucas K. Delezene, Elen M. Feuerriegel, Patrick Randolph-Quinney, Tracy L. Kivell, Myra F. Laird, Gaokgatlhe Tawane, Jeremy M. DeSilva, Shara E. Bailey, Juliet K. Brophy, Marc R. Meyer, Matthew M. Skinner, Matthew W. Tocheri, Caroline VanSickle, Christopher S. Walker, Timothy L. Campbell, Brian Kuhn, Ashley Kruger, Steven Tucker, Alia Gurtov, Nompumelelo Hlophe, Rick Hunter, Hannah Morris, Becca Peixotto, Maropeng Ramalepa, Dirk van Rooyen, Mathabela Tsikoane, Pedro Boshoff, Paul H. G. M. Dirks, Lee R. Berger. New fossil remains of Homo naledi from the Lesedi Chamber, South Africa // eLife. 2017. 6:e24232.
3) Lee R. Berger, John Hawks, Paul H. G. M. Dirks, Marina Elliott, Eric M. Roberts. Homo naledi and Pleistocene hominin evolution in subequatorial Africa // eLife. 2017. 6:e24234.
A scientific reconstruction of the head of this mysterious creature discovered in South Africa by American paleontologist Lee Berger. The scientist presented one cast of the skull of Homo naledi to his Russian colleagues.
The fruits of scientific work were presented on Sunday at the National Research Technological University "MISiS". Homo naledi is half man, half monkey. However, instead of shedding light on the origins of humanity, it turned out to be a link that does not fit well into the evolutionary chain, explains Russian anthropologist Stanislav Drobyshevsky.
“Homo naledi combines some features that are more typical of primates, such as the brain, with the latest signs of evolutionary development, in particular teeth and feet, which bring them closer to modern humans,” says Drobyshevsky. “The naledi are extremely unique. Their height was about one and a half meters, the brain weighed from 400 to 600 grams, just in the interval between Australopithecines (upright walking primates) and Homo habilis, which is considered the earliest man.
When they first analyzed the bones of fifteen individuals found in the deep South African Rising Star cave, scientists initially thought they were the remains of early humans who lived about three million years ago. Their surprise knew no bounds when dating revealed that Homo naledi lived only 300 thousand years ago, at a time when Rhodesian man (Homo rhodesiensis) - one of the closest to modern man - was spreading throughout the South African steppes.
“The coexistence of these two species on the same territory proves that the evolution of humanity could have followed a completely different path,” says Drobyshevsky. Other species of humans lived during the same era, but they were not as different from each other as humans and chimpanzees (as in the case of Australopithecus and Homo habilis), or they lived on different continents or in territories separated by insurmountable geographical barriers.
It remains a mystery how Homo naledi and Rhodesian man, whom some scientists classify as Homo sapiens, interacted with each other. “They could either cooperate with each other or quarrel. There are genes of some African peoples, such as the Pygmies or the Bushmen, that still have not been deciphered,” says the Russian anthropologist. Just as there is something of Neanderthal in the DNA of European sapiens, the undeciphered links of the genetics of African peoples could be the legacy of Homo naledi, although in order to solve this mystery, it will be necessary to decipher the genome of a new species.
On the other hand, Naledi's brain, comparable in size to the brain of the very first man, and his chest, which, like primates, is not adapted to speech, indicate that Naledi's intellectual abilities were poorly developed. Their only cultural artifacts can be found there, next to their remains, in a cave more than 16 meters deep, which can only be entered through a very narrow hole 20 centimeters wide, which excludes from the very beginning the possibility that they lived there. The most likely, according to Drobyshevsky, is that the low-growing naledi buried their dead there, but not as a ritual, but for hygienic reasons.
The jaw and teeth of these hominids are even smaller than those of modern humans, which refutes one of the main statements of the theory of evolution. Until now, it was believed that the size of teeth decreased during human evolution. Drobyshevsky says that the curvature of the fingers, greater than those of modern apes, on the contrary, proves that at some point naledi could involute to adapt to their environment.
Drobyshevsky says that, despite the shape of the naledi’s hand, almost the same as that of a modern person, and the ability to produce tools, the bend of the fingers refutes all previously existing theories. New data allows scientists to understand that Naledi walked upright and used tools, like the first man, but could also climb trees like a monkey. “Some of the tools that scientists had previously found and attributed to sapiens could in fact belong to Naledi. Nothing from the Naledi culture has come down to us, but the shape of their hands indicates that they could produce tools, although their brains were small,” says Drobyshevsky.
The remains of representatives of the species Homo naledi were found deep in the Rising Star Cave in South Africa in 2013. Only the slimmer members of the expedition could get to the place where the bones lay: they had to get through the “skinner” - a narrow hole underground. For Homo naledi, the skinner was not a problem - they were very small. Their brain size did not exceed the size of the brain of modern chimpanzees. But a study of the skulls and other bones of the Naledi people showed that they were not so simple: their skeleton intricately combined features characteristic of ancient and primitive representatives of the hominin tribe - such as Australopithecines - and more highly developed species, such as Homo habilis .
Yesterday in the magazine eLife three articles were published ( , , ) by an international group of scientists led by anthropologist Lee Berger, who led the first expedition to discover Homo naledi. This time, scientists presented results that allow them to date the find: according to isotope analysis and electron paramagnetic resonance analysis, the remains Homo naledi lay in the cave from 335 to 236 thousand years. This means that the small Naledi people could have lived in Africa at the same time as Homo sapien s.
For people with such primitive features - a shortened back of the head, low and short frontal lobes, a wide chest below, curved fingers - this is a very early dating: these features are characteristic of australopithecines, who lived not 300 thousand, but 2 million years ago. On the other hand, progressive features Homo naledi- such as the length of the fingers and signs of upright walking - suggest that these people were in many ways close to the later representatives of the genus Homo.
Experts note that after the discovery of “hobbits” - short (up to a meter) hominids from the island of Flores in Indonesia, who looked extremely primitive, but lived only 50 thousand years ago, it is easier for anthropologists to imagine that other species of people lived on earth in parallel with modern people , with much less advanced anatomy.
Despite the relative “youth” of the remains H. naledi, this species may be evolutionarily close to the oldest representatives of the genus Homo, who lived up to 2.8 million years ago. It is quite possible that new finds will help unravel the mystery of its origin and life: due to the inaccessibility of the cave, not everything was recovered from it. Perhaps the cave hides tools made by long-fingered hands H. naledi(until now their tools had not been found), or new, more complete skeletons and better preserved skulls - like the almost complete skull described in one of the three articles, found in the dead end of the Rising Star Cave, which previously remained hidden from the eyes of researchers.
