Human relative been found in cave

A new species of human relative was discovered and the big news was announced on 10 September 2015, by the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University), the National Geographic Society and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF).

The new species is called Homo naledi, which sheds light on the origins and diversity of our genus. Besides, it seems to have intentionally deposited bodies of its dead in a remote cave chamber, a behaviour previously thought limited to humans. It consists of more than 1 550 numbered fossil elements, making the discovery be the largest fossil hominin find yet made on the continent of Africa.

Let's introduce something about h.naledi. It was first found in a cave known as Rising Star in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, 30 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa, by Wits University scientists and volunteer cavers. The fossils have yet to be dated. A special team of very slender individuals were set to retrieve them, for those fossils laid about 90 meters from the cave entrance and they can only be accessible through a chute. The team has recovered parts of at least 15 individuals of the same species and a small fraction of the fossils believed to remain in the chamber. Homo naledi is already practically the best-known fossil member of our lineage.

In general, Homo naledi looks like one of the most primitive members of our genus, but it also has some surprisingly human-like features, enough to warrant placing it in the genus Homo, According to John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US, a senior author on the paper describing the new species. H. naledi had a tiny brain, about the size of an average orange (about 500 cubic centimeters), perched atop a very slender body. From the research we can know that on average H. naledi stood approximately 1.5 meters  tall and weighed about 45 kilograms.

The findings are published in the scientific journal eLife and reported in the cover story of the October issue of National Geographic magazine and a NOVA/National Geographic Special. If you're interested in the new species of human relative, you can refer to them.

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