The first remains of Homo naledi were found by cavers per ber) deep within the Rising Star cave complex in South Africa’s Transvaal region. 8 million esatto 2.5 million years spillo-during the Pliocene (5.3 million sicuro about 2.6 million years ago) and early Pleistocene (about 2.6 million years ago puro 11,700 years ago) epochs.
H. naledi is known from more than 1,500 fossil specimens found con excavations of the Dinaledi Chamber-the remains of at least 15 males and females of various ages-that were described per 2015. H. naledi had some skeletal features in common with other members of Homo, including reduced cheek teeth and similar jaws and feet. It possessed other features, including the pelvis, shoulder girdle, femur, and size of the brain cavity, that were more reminiscent of those found durante Australopithecus, verso lineage that most paleontologists believe was ancestral sicuro genus Homo, and thus us (Homo sapiens).
naledi’s mix of modern and primitive features, it was difficult for paleontologists preciso determine where esatto place the species on the time line of human evolution from its physical features macchia. Some studies attempted sicuro develop statistical models to estimate the age of the species based on its physical features; however, their results varied, with age estimates falling between 1 million and 2 million years ago.
The species, whose bones bore similarities to the remains of other species within the human genus Homo, as well as preciso those of Australopithecus, is thought to have evolved about the same time as the first members of Homo, some 2
Verso 2017 study conducted by a multinational gruppo of researchers from Australia, South Africa, the United States, and Spain attempted sicuro niente in on the age of the remains using verso series of radiometric dating techniques (which measure the ratio amount of a radioactive element and its ple of rock or bone). They established the dates of the sediments in which the bones of H. naledi were found using Uranium-Thorium dating (per technique athletique of estimating the age of a sample out sicuro roughly 1 million years). The results showed that the sediment matrix holding the remains was far younger than 2.5–2.8 million years old; it was only 236,000–414,000 years old. Another radiometric dating technique called U-series electron spin resonance (US-ESR) dating was used esatto validate these results by dating the remains of some of the teeth found per the sediment along with a few grains of sediment. Taken together, the giorno revealed that the age of the remains of H. naledi was somewhere between 236,000 and 335,000 years old, indicating that H. naledi was present during the Pleistocene Epoch mediante southern Africa.
Around the same time, it is thought that H. sapiens was emerging sopra different parts of Africa. The oldest known fossils of anatomically modern human beings are likely those that date to 315,000 years ago durante Morocco. (Until recently, the oldest H. sapiens fossils were thought preciso date sicuro 195,000 years spillo at Ethiopia’s Omo site.) One could speculate that other members of each species (whose remains are yet undiscovered) could have lived at the same time, and they may have even encountered one another.
With H
With the new information obtained by dating the sediments and the remains they contained, paleontologists developed one snapshot of H. naledi’s time on Earth-possibly one near the end of its existence. However, its true place with respect sicuro other members of the genus remained verso matter of speculation. Although the 2017 study described relatively young remains, the species still could have first evolved some 2.5–3 million years spillo-verso time that precedes the evolution of H. sapiens, as well as H. erectus, verso species which many paleontologists consider onesto be the direct ancestor of H come funziona soulsingles. sapiens. While it is possible that H. naledi could be simply the last of per lineage that tracked parallel puro the one that produced us, some paleontologists, including some of those who were involved in the 2017 study, argue that it is also possible that H. sapiens or H. erectus (or both) could have descended from H. naledi.
