CHAND: The fossilised bones of 15 bodies from a previously unknown human species have been discovered in a cave in South Africa, it was announced Thursday, in what scientists hailed as a breakthrough in evolution research.
About 1,500 fossils were found deep in a cave system outside Johannesburg, hidden in an underground chamber only accessible via several steep climbs and rock crevasses.
The new species has been named “Homo naledi” after the “Rising Star” cave where the bones were found. Naledi means “star” in Sesotho, a local South African language. Experts are uncertain how old the bones are, but say they were probably placed there after death — a discovery that shines fresh light on the origin of the mankind.
“We have just met a new species of human relative that deliberately disposed of its dead,” Lee Berger, research professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, announced as the fossils were unveiled.
“Until this moment in history we thought the idea of ritualised behaviours directed towards the dead… was actually unique to Homo sapiens.
“We saw ourselves as different. We have now seen, we believe, a species that had that same capability — and it is an extraordinary thing.”
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