Homo Vs Australopitheco

In 2013, two cavers entered a cave named Rising Star, in South Africa. They were hoping to find fossils for a scientist, Professor Lee Berger, but what they found was beyond anyone’s expectations. After the two men squeezed their way through a narrow passage and down a chute, they found bones lying on the cave floor that looked both human and primitive. Berger began to excavate the cave immediately, and found over 1,500 bones of both young children and adults from all different parts of the body. Some body parts seemed almost identical to modern humans’, while others seemed much less advanced than other species in the genus Homo. It had the brain size of an ape, yet had feet almost identical to ours today. Berger decided to name what he believed …show more content…
It also had a much smaller brain capacity than H. erectus and H. sapiens, one that was close to the size of A. afarensis. Large brain size and higher brainpower is an almost necessary feature in Homo species, but H. naledi had too many other features, such as its feet, hands and brain shape that matched closely with modern human bones for it not to be an early human. These mix and match traits led Berger to classify H. naledi as a new species. This finding changed the whole idea of how H. sapiens evolved into what it is today. One unlikely idea is that A. afarensis and H. naledi both came from the same ancestor, but H. naledi ended up becoming the beginning of humanity’s evolution. Another idea is that H. naledi overlapped with much more modern humans less than a million years ago, and a small brained hominin coexisted with its larger brained relatives. There were also over 1,500 bones found in the cave, enough to make up 15 partial skeletons. The vast amount and variety of these bones led scientists to wonder how the bones ended up in the cave. There were no other animal bones found in the cave, as is commonly found alongside hominin fossils. It appears that the bones were placed with a purpose after …show more content…
naledi is dating the bones. With other fossils, such as in East Africa, it is possible to date specimens by measuring the decay of radioactive elements in layers of volcanic ash. Another method is to date layers of calcite that are deposited by running water. However, because the bones of H. naledi were placed on the surface of the ground or in very little sediment, they cannot be dated accurately. A second challenge is figuring out how the bones were placed into the cave. There was no evidence of tools or food to show habitation in the cave, or any sign that they were dragged into the cave by an animal. The bones could not have been washed in by running water, as there was only sediment from the cave walls, and no rubble that would have washed in along with the bones. Finally, the bones appeared to be placed over a long period of time, not all at once. The only option left was that other H. naledi placed the bones of their dead in the chamber, but it is so improbable that many scientists have trouble believing it. Currently, the only way to reach the chamber is to squeeze through a crack less than ten inches high called Superman’s Crawl (due to the way cavers outstretch one arm like Superman to fit through the passage) and down a narrow chute, but the idea that H. naledi did so while carrying bodies is impossible. Instead, scientists believe that Superman’s Crawl may have been wider and the bones were dropped in from above and fell