New Human Ancestor Discovered: Homo naledi (EXCLUSIVE VIDEO)
Transcript
LEE BERGER SOT: “We do have our genus.”
TeaM SOT: “Oh!”
LEE BERGER, PALEOANTHROPOLOGIST AND NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER-IN-RESIDENCE:
What these discoveries are telling us is that there’s a lot
out there to be found.
We actually don’t have the whole story of human evolution.
Marina SOT: “It looks like it might be a fragment of the,
like, supraorbital torus or something.”
Berger SOT: “Oh my God!”
LEE BERGER, PALEOANTHROPOLOGIST AND NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER-IN-RESIDENCE:
The homo naledi fossils are extraordinary in a wide variety
of ways. We know they have the
characters of an early member of the genus homo.
By comparing their morphology to other early hominids we can
see that we would place them right at the base of the lineage that leads to Us.
We’ve never seen a non-human that shares so many primitive
and yet sometimes advanced characters: tiny brain, curved fingers but a
generally human-like hand, long legs and a human foot.
We are looking at well over a dozen, in fact probably 18 different
individuals representing all age spans from near fetal age to senile
individuals who were at the last stages of their lives.
When I first saw these images by my exploration team, I knew
we had to act fast. The Rising Star cave
system is one of the best known in South Africa. It’s been caved continuously for more than
fifty years.
I had this fossil lying on the surface and I could see that
it had been damaged.
So, I called National Geographic to put together an
expedition fast.
The entrance is very, very difficult. To get to it you have to move through a
seven-and-a-half inch slot, wiggling your way across sharp rocks before you
drop into this remarkable little chamber.
And the floor is quite literally comprised of parts of the
bodies of these human ancestors.
LEE BERGER SOT:
"Look at this!”
“Whoa!”
“Tell them go to collect”
[Clapping]
“All right!
You got the fossil!
LEE BERGER, PALEOANTHROPOLOGIST AND NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER-IN-RESIDENCE:
It appears based upon the context that we have discovered
this incredible assemblage of hominid fossils in is that they were deliberately
placed there by their next of kin after death.
Homo naledi was doing something that until this moment we
thought was unique to modern humans, that is deliberate disposal of the
dead.
If this hypothesis holds true, that’s an extraordinary
thing.
What naledi has taught us is that there is clearly more out
there that we didn’t know.