Throughout history, humans have been on the hunt to discover more about our past ancestors with the intent to reveal more about ourselves and to define what innately makes us human. Although many skeletons and species of Homo have been identified, we have not yet discovered our last common ancestor, and this has been a hot topic of debate. The genus Homo is bookended by Australopithecus afarensis and Homo erectus, the former more ape than human, while the latter was responsible for making stone tools. However as National Geographic claims, “there is still a murky million-year gap, a bipedal animal was transformed into a nascent human being.” Two years ago, Lee Berger, a paleoanthropologist, got closer to finding the answer to these philosophical
…show more content…
Upon excavation, anthropologists unearthed 1,550 bones which reassembled made up fifteen individuals of varying ages. Although on first glance, “parts of the skeletons looked astonishingly modern,” many were “astonishingly primitive- in some cases even more apelike than the australopithecines.” Over the past year, scientists have comprehensively studied the bones, categorizing them, while beginning to postulate how Homo naledi fits into our family tree.
Upon further investigation, Homo naledi appears to be an insane mix of modern and primitive features that can best be examine in the teeth, feet, and hands of some of the individuals identified. Some teeth were similar to modern humans with “small molar crowns with five cusps like ours,” but other aspects, like the teeth roots, appeared more primitive. The same …show more content…
He, along with many other scientists, believe that Homo naledi is not a new species, but rather a representative of Homo erectus. White claims that, “the Homo naledi cranium is similar in conformation and size to the earliest and most primitive Homo erectus representatives.” He also cites that, “many of the characteristics that researchers claim differentiate Homo naledi from Homo erectus vary within our own species,” and therefore does not delineate that Homo naledi is a new species. Many researchers are troubled that because the bones of Homo naledi come from fifteen different individuals they may not have been reassembled properly, especially without dates, leading to inaccurate conclusions about body structure. There is also the debate about Berger’s intentions with the discovery of Homo naledi. Many anthropologists think that Berger was desperate to claim fame, causing him to rush the process of analyzing the bones, possibly leading to inaccurate conclusions. The assembly and observation of the bones happened over a quick workshop taking a mere six weeks by many young paleoanthropologists. The quick research period, inexperience of many of the researchers, and quick publication of the findings, especially without dates, leaves many
Upon excavation, anthropologists unearthed 1,550 bones which reassembled made up fifteen individuals of varying ages. Although on first glance, “parts of the skeletons looked astonishingly modern,” many were “astonishingly primitive- in some cases even more apelike than the australopithecines.” Over the past year, scientists have comprehensively studied the bones, categorizing them, while beginning to postulate how Homo naledi fits into our family tree.
Upon further investigation, Homo naledi appears to be an insane mix of modern and primitive features that can best be examine in the teeth, feet, and hands of some of the individuals identified. Some teeth were similar to modern humans with “small molar crowns with five cusps like ours,” but other aspects, like the teeth roots, appeared more primitive. The same …show more content…
He, along with many other scientists, believe that Homo naledi is not a new species, but rather a representative of Homo erectus. White claims that, “the Homo naledi cranium is similar in conformation and size to the earliest and most primitive Homo erectus representatives.” He also cites that, “many of the characteristics that researchers claim differentiate Homo naledi from Homo erectus vary within our own species,” and therefore does not delineate that Homo naledi is a new species. Many researchers are troubled that because the bones of Homo naledi come from fifteen different individuals they may not have been reassembled properly, especially without dates, leading to inaccurate conclusions about body structure. There is also the debate about Berger’s intentions with the discovery of Homo naledi. Many anthropologists think that Berger was desperate to claim fame, causing him to rush the process of analyzing the bones, possibly leading to inaccurate conclusions. The assembly and observation of the bones happened over a quick workshop taking a mere six weeks by many young paleoanthropologists. The quick research period, inexperience of many of the researchers, and quick publication of the findings, especially without dates, leaves many