Human Homo Naledi

New species of ancient human, Homo naledi, discovered near other early human finds

A remarkable cache of over 1,500 fossils, first discovered by amateur cave explorers in 2013 in the Dinaledi cave in South Africa, has revealed a new member of the hominin family. An international team of paleontologists introduced Homo naledi last week in the journal eLife, including stunning photos demonstrating H. naledi's morphologic similarities to modern humans and to other hominids.

Although some have questioned the decision to declare these fossils a new species of ancient human, the authors present data based on analyzing remains of at least 15 individuals. Homo naledi displays unique traits alongside a unique combination of primitive and derived traits. Humanlike features of the hand, writes, foot, and lower limb provide clear evidence that these fossils belong to members of the Homo genus.

Like other early Homo species including Homo erectus, Homo habilis and Homo rudolfensis, the newly described Homo naledi has some morphological features that more closely resemble australopiths than modern humans, such as a smaller cranium. The exact position of Homo naledi on the human phylogenetic tree is an open question until the fossils can be dated. In addition to determining the age of these fossils, scientists are eager to try to extract DNA from the bones in order to sequence the H. naledi genome to gain more insights into how modern human genes differ from the genetic blueprints of early humans.

While the H. naledi fossils have yet to be dated, and a genome sequence is unlikely to be recovered, GenScript offers molecular biology services to accelerate your research: