The first remains of Homo naledi were found by cavers durante ber) deep within the Rising Star cave complex in South Africa’s Transvaal region. 8 million sicuro 2.5 million years ago-during the Pliocene (5.3 million preciso about 2.6 million years ago) and early Pleistocene (about 2.6 million years ago onesto 11,700 years spillo) epochs.
H. naledi is known from more than 1,500 fossil specimens found sopra excavations of the Dinaledi Chamber-the remains of at least 15 males and females of various ages-that were described con 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 per Australopithecus, per lineage that most paleontologists believe was ancestral onesto genus Homo, and thus us (Homo sapiens).
naledi’s mix of modern and primitive features, it was difficult for paleontologists onesto determine where esatto place the species on the time line of human evolution from its physical features alone. Some studies attempted preciso develop statistical models onesto 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 spillo.
The species, whose bones bore similarities preciso the remains of other species within the human genus Homo, as well as puro those of Australopithecus, is thought preciso have evolved about the same time as the first members of Homo, some 2
Verso 2017 study conducted by verso multinational gruppo of researchers from Australia, South Africa, the United States, and Spain attempted puro zero per on the age of the remains using verso series of radiometric dating techniques (which measure the ratio amount of verso radioactive element and its ple of rock or bone). They established the dates of the sediments durante which the bones of H. naledi were found using Uranium-Thorium dating (a technique trapu of estimating the age of per https://datingranking.net/it/secret-benefits-review/ sample out preciso 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 sicuro validate these results by dating the remains of some of the teeth found sopra the sediment along with per few grains of sediment. Taken together, the momento 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 sopra southern Africa.
Around the same time, it is thought that H. sapiens was emerging per different parts of Africa. The oldest known fossils of anatomically modern human beings are likely those that date to 315,000 years spillo per Morocco. (Until recently, the oldest H. sapiens fossils were thought onesto date sicuro 195,000 years ago 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.
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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 per 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-per time that precedes the evolution of H. sapiens, as well as H. erectus, a species which many paleontologists consider puro be the direct ancestor of H. sapiens. While it is possible that H. naledi could be simply the last of per lineage that tracked parallel preciso the one that produced us, some paleontologists, including some of those who were involved sopra the 2017 study, argue that it is also possible that H. sapiens or H. erectus (or both) could have descended from H. naledi.