Homo naledi, a new species of the genus Homo from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa

Abstract

Homo naledi is a previously-unknown species of extinct hominin discovered within the Dinaledi Chamber of the Rising Star cave system, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa. This species is characterized by body mass and stature similar to small-bodied human populations but a small endocranial volume similar to australopiths. Cranial morphology of H. naledi is unique, but most similar to early Homo species including Homo erectus, Homo habilis or Homo rudolfensis. While primitive, the dentition is generally small and simple in occlusal morphology. H. naledi has humanlike manipulatory adaptations of the hand and wrist. It also exhibits a humanlike foot and lower limb. These humanlike aspects are contrasted in the postcrania with a more primitive or australopith-like trunk, shoulder, pelvis and proximal femur. Representing at least 15 individuals with most skeletal elements repeated multiple times, this is the largest assemblage of a single species of hominins yet discovered in Africa.

The evolution of body size and shape in the human career

“…Although currently undated, the recently diagnosed hominin species from South Africa, H. naledi [27], is also relatively small-bodied with an estimated mean mass of 44 kg (range 39.7-54.5). If this taxon turns out to be a basal member of Homo or another small-bodied member of H. erectus s.l., this would be consistent with our conclusion that earliest Homo was not especially large-bodied.…”

“…We combine our estimate of mass in a projected adult version of KNM-WT 15000 with the recent 'adult' stature estimate provided in [8,48]. We use the approximate midpoint for stature estimates of H. naledi presented elsewhere [27].…”

“…Table 1 summarizes new estimates of body size from fossils developed by Grabowski et al [7], excluding numerous specimens that we judge to be of uncertain taxonomic affinities or subadult status. This trims the sample size of new (mostly multivariate) estimates from 90 specimens to 68, but we have added the body mass estimates for the newly described Homo naledi (n ¼ 8, forensic estimates in table 3 of reference [27]). These results are presented graphically in figure 1.…”

Inner structural organization of the distal humerus in Paranthropus and Homo

“…This is especially true for the hominin-bearing southern African cave sites, where variably preserved remains of Australopithecus, Paranthropus and Homo have been sometimes discovered commingled and where taxonomic diversity is revealing wider than previously assumed (Berger et al, 2010(Berger et al, , 2015.…”

Which Bone to Pick: Creation, Curation, and Dissemination of Online 3D Digital Bioarchaeological Data

“…The Rising Star Cave excavation project is treated separately here as an example of a project-based archive using a more general publication plat- (Berger et al 2015), supported by the South African National Research Foundation and the National Geographic Society. The hominin remains uncovered were scanned both in situ and in a laboratory setting, and over 130 scans have been made available to download and print on the project's Morphosource page.…”