A New Species Of Human Has Been Discovered In South Africa

Some traverse the world not contributing anything and living by authority, others try to find out as much as they can to debunk said authorities.

Researchers working in South Africa have discovered within the cave system known as Rising Star, located within South Africa’s famous Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, fossils of what is believed to be a now extinct species of human who lived between two to three million years ago; homo naledi.

Two amateur cavers stumbled upon the find two years ago, and from that the Rising Star expedition was born. The researchers, from the University of Witwatersrand, in collaboration with National Geographic, have now published their findings, according to IFLS.

Homo naledi (from the South African Sesotho, meaning star), stood at around five feet tall, especially tall for such an early hominid. Their heads were tiny, with smaller brains than sapiens later evolved. Their shoulders rotated than ours, probably for climbing; and they had almost human-like hands, more curved than ours for a firmer grip. The feet of the two species are indistinguishable.

The eeriest thing from the find though is that from the location of the find, homo naledi might have buried their dead. Before now we thought only modern homo sapiens did that, so there’s a question right there.

I know the scientists are probably wetting themselves in anticipation at all the new discoveries naledi would make to evolutionary biology and the history of man; it’s not everyday one discovers a new species of humans.