Early Thursday, scientists announced the discovery of a new species of early human that lived sometime near the dawn of modern human beings. Dubbed Homo naledi, the new species had humanlike feet and hands, but a brain the size of an orange. "We've never seen a non-human that shares so many primitive and yet sometimes advanced" features, says Lee Berger of South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand, who led the expedition and co-authored the study.
The new species was named for the Rising Star caves in South Africa where it was discovered — naledi means "star" in the Sotho language. The fossils uncovered in the cave — mostly by scientists thin enough to fit through the small opening — were from between 12 and 18 different people, from all age ranges. They were probably placed there when they died. "Homo naldei was doing something that, until this moment, we thought was unique to modern humans," Berger says: "Deliberate disposal of the dead." There is already debate about where H. naledi fits in the hominid family tree, and how old the fossils are. You can learn more in the National Geographic video below. Peter Weber
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
How Canadian tariffs could impact tourism to the USIn the Spotlight Canadians represent the largest group of foreign visitors to the United States. But they may soon stop visiting.
-
Entitlements: DOGE goes after Social SecurityFeature Elon Musk is pushing false claims about Social Security fraud
-
The Week contest: Amazon BondPuzzles and Quizzes
-
Pharaoh's tomb discovered for first time in 100 yearsSpeed Read This is the first burial chamber of a pharaoh unearthed since Tutankhamun in 1922
-
Scientists report optimal method to boil an eggSpeed Read It takes two temperatures of water to achieve and no fancy gadgets
-
Europe records big leap in renewable energySpeed Read Solar power overtook coal for the first time
-
Blue Origin conducts 1st test flight of massive rocketSpeed Read The Jeff Bezos-founded space company conducted a mostly successful test flight of its 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket
-
US won its war on 'murder hornets,' officials saySpeed Read The announcement comes five years after the hornets were first spotted in the US
-
Dark energy data suggest Einstein was rightSpeed Read Albert Einstein's 1915 theory of general relativity has been proven correct, according to data collected by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
-
New DNA tests of Pompeii dead upend popular storiesSpeed Read An analysis of skeletal remains reveals that some Mount Vesuvius victims have been wrongly identified
-
NASA's Europa Clipper blasts off, seeking an oceanSpeed Read The ship is headed toward Jupiter on a yearslong journey
