Homo naledi
- Date
- 2013-2015 · confidence high
- Place
- Rising Star Cave, Cradle of Humankind, Gauteng, South Africa
- Credited to
- Lee Berger, Steven Tucker, Rick Hunter and a team from the University of the Witwatersrand
- People
- 👤 Lee Berger1965–
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
More than 1,500 fossils of a small-brained species that lived between 335,000 and 236,000 years ago, contemporary with the earliest Homo sapiens. It showed that several human lineages coexisted in Africa.
Published in eLife (2015) and dated in 2017. Claims of intentional burial and engravings (2023) are highly contested.
What it led to
- a branching view of human evolution
- debate over burial in small-brained species
- excavation using specialist cavers