New Species of Ancient Human Relative

[Anomalocaris]

New species of ancient human discovered, claim scientists

A huge haul of bones found in a small, dark chamber at the back of a cave in South Africa may be the remnants of a new species of ancient human relative.

Explorers happened upon the bones after squeezing through a fissure high up in the rear wall of the Rising Star cave, 50km from Johannesburg, before descending down a long, narrow chute to the chamber floor 40 metres beneath the surface.

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Edited September 10, 2015 by Anomalocaris

[Frank Merton]

Caution is called for until the descriptions get published in a scientific journal. Nevertheless it seems the piece of the picture are filling in nicely.

[Taun]

"He described the slender, small-brained creatures as “long-legged”, “pinheaded” and “gangly”. "

I work with that guy!..

I agree with Frank on this one... Let's wait and see before we announce a new "cousin"... Still - the location of the remains is interesting in and of itself...

[MissJatti]

This is how we would still look like, if the aliens hadn't intervened

[Anomalocaris]

More information and a video:

This Face Changes the Human Story. But How?

While primitive in some respects, the face, skull, and teeth show enough modern features to justify H. naledi's placement in the genus Homo. Artist Gurche spent some 700 hours reconstructing the head from bone scans, using bear fur for hair.

Delezene’s own fossil pile contained 190 teeth,—a critical part of any analysis, since teeth alone are often enough to identify a species. But these teeth weren’t like anything the scientists in the “tooth booth” had ever seen. Some features were astonishingly humanlike—the molar crowns were small, for instance, with five cusps like ours. But the premolar roots were weirdly primitive. “We’re not sure what to make of these,” Delezene said. “It’s crazy.”

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[Taun]

This is how we would still look like, if the aliens hadn't intervened

If we came out looking like the lady in your sig - that would be great.. Unfortunately most of us come out looking like me... (The aliens might have ended their project a bit too soon....)

[Gingitsune]

Finally analysis after months of waiting!

If we look at the drawing of the cave:

If the Naledi peoples were living in the central cave, it could have been easier to trash the smelly corpses in the next chamber instead of dragging them out to the open. They talk about elderly and infants, the more likely people to die in the camp.

As for when they lived, I'd say try a DNA test. The remains were in a cave, the temperature of the region are similar to Spain and Italy, if we get result, we will know there must have lived around the same time as Neandertal, if not they are probably much older. And if it works, we'll know where on the homo family tree belong.

[Cionaodh]

just another ape i bet

[Eldorado]

He's like Mungo Jerry Naledi with those whiskers.

[Lucas Cooper Merrin]

This is how we would still look like, if the aliens hadn't intervened

The aliens must have missed a few of us!

[Taun]

He's like Mungo Jerry Naledi with those whiskers.

He does sort of look like him doesn't he?...

[Stubbly_Dooright]

I agree with wanting to wait to be sure, but.....................

Missing link? .................................................

Maybe?

Love the aliens reference.

[back to earth]

Mungo Jerry ? .... Thats sad ( I saw him try to perform once )

[back to earth]

I often wonder how they get an expression on a face ( not to mention the size of earlobes and other things ) from a few bones.

'paleontological reconstruction' often seems like 'artistic license' ???

Now .... are the light bits in (a) the found fossil bits and the dark the added postulated missing bits ... or visa versa ?

Hmmmmmm ?

Edited September 11, 2015 by back to earth

[Paranomali]

Looks like my neighbor

[Frank Merton]

I often wonder how they get an expression on a face ( not to mention the size of earlobes and other things ) from a few bones.

'paleontological reconstruction' often seems like 'artistic license' ???

Hmmmmmm ?

Your cynicism is noted; I would say they have to put some sort of "expression" there. I would imagine they follow anthropic patterns since this is an anthropoid. (For those out there who are sticklers for correct paleontological nomenclature, please understand my intent in the sentence was not entirely serious).

[Stubbly_Dooright]

back to earth, on 10 September 2015 - 08:20 PM, said:

I often wonder how they get an expression on a face ( not to mention the size of earlobes and other things ) from a few bones.

'paleontological reconstruction' often seems like 'artistic license' ???

Hmmmmmm ?

Your cynicism is noted; I would say they have to put some sort of "expression" there. I would imagine they follow anthropic patterns since this is an anthropoid. (For those out there who are sticklers for correct paleontological nomenclature, please understand my intent in the sentence was not entirely serious).

( and I hope I'm read as the same thing )

Well, I wonder, should they put expressions of pure terror, you know, the expression they last had, before they bit the dust?

[Why not]

I,m still waiting to see the first true transitional fossil of any species, let alone a human.

[Imaginarynumber1]

I,m still waiting to see the first true transitional fossil of any species, let alone a human.

Joke's on you. Every fossil is of a transitional species.

[+Hammerclaw]

Bone men always have to claim they found a new species. More often than not, it's only typical morphological variations within the same species.

[WoIverine]

Lucy the Lemur.

[Gingitsune]

I often wonder how they get an expression on a face ( not to mention the size of earlobes and other things ) from a few bones.

'paleontological reconstruction' often seems like 'artistic license' ???

Now .... are the light bits in (a) the found fossil bits and the dark the added postulated missing bits ... or visa versa ?

Hmmmmmm ?

It would be vice versa, the dark part are the genuine parts.

The rest was probably extrapolated with more complete skulls from the same site. As for the above bone flesh, muscles leave traces on the bones where they were attached. Studiying modern human and chimps, they can extrapolate how big the muscles were, where they were attached on both side, how everything would fit on the bones + muscles level. Then, extrapolating from Human and chimps (maybe even groilla and orang utang) they extrapolate cartilage, fat and skin and how they would fit over.

On the human level, it work rather well, it is often use to give a face to crime victim skulls and usually the result is close enough to identify the person. Nose and ears are known to be the tricky part though. With ancient human, you can trust the muscle level to be right, and probably the up to the skin should be about right. The skin color, the hair, ears and noses maybe be not complete speculation, but there's a good part of artistic license at that point.

Edited September 11, 2015 by Gingitsune

[PersonFromPorlock]

Measurements of the bones show that the creature has a curious blend of ancient ape and modern human-like features.

Hmm... why is my 'Piltdown Man alarm' going off?

One interesting point not made yet (that I'm aware of): h.naledi must have been a fire user to navigate so deep a cave system. If so, there should be enough burnt wood associated with the remains to date them as being within the last 50KY, or 'earlier'.

[coolguy]

This is cool, I wonder how the bones got back there

[SHaYap]

^ I hope to some higher power of a divine nature it was not 'rats' ~

~