Homo Naledi is a Star!

For a self-proclaimed anthropolgy / archaeology nerd like me, Africa is the place to be!










Not only did I get to visit Oldupai Gorge last month when we were in Tanzania, but I came back to South Africa just in time to hear the announcement of the research results from the Rising Star expedition in South Africa's Cradle of Humankind.

In a press conference from the Maropeng Museum on Thursday, September 10, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, Explorers Club Member, Wits University Professor and Rising Star Expedition leader Lee Berger - who happens to have been born in the USA - announced ...

... a new species of hominin discovered in the caves outside of Johannesburg had been identified  - Homo naledi! (If you haven't heard the news, then you must be living in a cave yourself! It was splashed all over the international media for days.)

The unique combination of character in Homo naledi skulls and skeletons means that it is unlike any other hominin species and therefore has been classified as a distinct species.  

The word "naledi" means "star" in the Sotho language and Naledi has been assigned to the genus Homo. It shares some features with australopiths (like Sediba, Lucy, Mrs. Ples and the Taung child), some features with Homo (the genus that includes Humans, Neanderthals and some other extinct species such as H. erectus), and shows some features that are entirely unique to Naledi.

Vince and I went to Maropeng in the Cradle of Humankind to meet Naledi in the flesh ... well you know what I mean!















The exhibit was very well presented. Along with an actual fossilized Homo naledi skeleton, there were 3D reconstructions of individual skulls, hands and feet presented next to their respective 3D counterparts of Australopithecus sediba, Homo erectus and Homo sapien. This really helped to show the distinct differences between the species.











The exhibit also included placards with typical questions a visitor might have. How do you know that this is a new species? How do you know it belongs in the genus Homo? Where does Home naledi fit within the human lineage? This is complicated stuff! And yet the answers were very clear, concise and understandable to the lay visitor.

And just in case you wanted more detail, there were a couple of  representatives from the Rising Star team available to answer questions and expand upon the placard explanations.

This was very lucky indeed! One of the excavators, Lindsay Hunter will also be in charge of the design of a future educational exhibit for the museum. We have a friend visiting us in October who is a museum education consultant out of Kansas City. We will definitely be getting these two together!

cover art by paleoartist John Gurche

Naledi will continue to be on display at Maropeng only until October 11. For those of you who can't make it to the Cradle of Humankind before then, you can read about the discovery in the October issue of National Geographic magazine with Naledi on the cover. I've already got my copy!