Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 10 May 2017

Scientists in South Africa reveal more on human-like species

CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA Some experts who were on continents it’s typically
Associated Press not involved in the research lizards, butterflies, fish, and
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A also marveled at the age small mammals that are
species belonging to the of the fossils, determined by susceptible to separation
human family tree whose dating Homo naledi teeth and isolated evolution, and
remnants were first discov- and cave sediments. the effects of that isolation
ered in a South African “This is astonishingly young can arise rapidly. To me,
cave in 2013 lived several for a species that still dis- naledi and floresiensis are
hundred thousand years plays primitive characteris- nature’s experiments of
ago, indicating that the tics found in fossils about 2 isolated evolution in two of
creature was alive at the million years old, such as the our evolutionary cousins.”
same time as early humans small brain size, curved fin- Berger, the research team
in Africa, scientists said gers, and form of the shoul- leader, said the discovery
Tuesday. der, trunk and hip joint. Yet of a second chamber with
A meticulous dating pro- the wrist, hands, legs and Homo naledi remains gives
cess showed that Homo feet look more like those of more credence to the idea
naledi (nah-LEH-dee), A replica skull of a species belonging to the human family tree Neanderthals and modern that the species deliber-
which had a mix of hu- whose remnants were first discovered in a South African cave humans, and the teeth are ately disposed of its dead
man-like and more primi- in 2013 is held at the unveiling at the Maropeng Museum, near relatively small and simple, in pitch-black caves that
Magaliesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, May 9, 2017.
tive characteristics such as Associated Press and set in lightly built jaw- are extremely difficult to
a small brain, existed in a bones,” Chris Stringer of the reach. However, some ex-
surprisingly recent period in come extinct much earlier said during an announce- Natural History Museum in perts who were not on the
paleontological terms, said — shows that the human ment of the discoveries at London wrote in an email research team questioned
Lee Berger of Wits University “Homo” family tree was the Cradle of Humankind, to The Associated Press. whether the small-brained
in Johannesburg. Berger more diverse than previ- a site near the South Afri- Stringer said there were par- species was capable of
led the team of research- ously thought at that point can town of Magaliesburg allels with the late survival such behavior and specu-
ers, which also announced in the evolution of our spe- where the fossils were found. of the species Homo flore- lated that other ways to
that it had found a second cies, Homo sapiens, said The research was also pub- siensis — also known as the access the chambers may
cave with more fossils of John Hawks of the Univer- lished in the journal eLife. “hobbit” — in apparent iso- have existed in the past.
the Homo naledi species, sity of Wisconsin-Madison The name of Homo naledi lation on an island in what So far, there is no evidence
including a relatively well- and Wits University. refers to the “Homo” evo- is today Indonesia, and that Homo naledi used
preserved skull of an adult The next step in research is lutionary group, which in- raised a key question: “How stone tools or harnessed fire
male. to “sort the relationship of cludes modern people and did a comparably strange for its own uses.
The conclusion that Homo these different species to our closest extinct relatives, and small-brained species The new discoveries offer
naledi was living between each other and also their and the word for “star” in linger on in southern Africa, a unifying message that
236,000 and 335,000 years role in our process of be- the local Sotho language. seemingly alongside more counters populism, intol-
ago — and had not be- coming human,” Hawks The fossils were found in ‘advanced’ humans?” erance and ethnic preju-
the Rising Star cave system, Richard Potts of the Smith- dice sweeping many parts
which includes more than sonian Institution’s National of the world, said Adam
2 kilometers (1.25 miles) Museum of Natural History Habib, vice-chancellor of
of underground, mapped in Washington said it was Wits University.
passageways. The second likely that Homo naledi “This research shows that
chamber containing the evolved and persisted in we come from common
more recent fossil discover- isolation from other species roots, that we represent
ies is more than 100 meters of Homo. ”Island habitats’” a common humanity,”
(330 feet) from the cave can occur on continents, Habib said. “If we’re go-
where the original discov- too, in small environmental ing to survive as a species,
eries were made, and pub- refuges that are sustained that’s what we need to
licly announced in 2015. long term,” Potts said. “Yes, remember.”q