New Species of Human Relative Discovered in South Africa!
Sept 10, 2015 23:50:18 GMT -6
Nugget, 727sky, and 7 more like this
Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2015 23:50:18 GMT -6
Now this is exciting, as much for the random happenstance nature of it as anything else.
They do keep reading everything about history and other species with assumptions to the lowest common denominator, huh?
Still, this is a real positive story, IMO, not one to look on the downsides or how silly the assumptions of unknown history tend to be.
I'd call that downright fascinating. Absolutely stunning to consider, in context to the rest of the article. They take a shot at putting the stunning nature of it into words tho...
Source
Yes, indeed. I couldn't agree more. We really have no idea of what could be out there, yet to be discovered and going in entirely new directions than 'accepted wisdom' would suggest it should.
The discovery of a new species of human relative was announced today (Sept. 10) by the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University), the National Geographic Society and the South African Department of Science and Technology/National Research Foundation (DST/NRF). Besides shedding light on the origins and diversity of our genus, the new species, Homo naledi, appears to have intentionally deposited bodies of its dead in a remote cave chamber, a behaviour previously thought limited to humans.
They do keep reading everything about history and other species with assumptions to the lowest common denominator, huh?
Still, this is a real positive story, IMO, not one to look on the downsides or how silly the assumptions of unknown history tend to be.
Consisting of more than 1,550 numbered fossil elements, the discovery is the single largest fossil hominin find yet made on the continent of Africa. The initial discovery was made in 2013 in a cave known as Rising Star in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa, by Wits University scientists and volunteer cavers.
I'd call that downright fascinating. Absolutely stunning to consider, in context to the rest of the article. They take a shot at putting the stunning nature of it into words tho...
“If we learned about a completely new form of hominin only because a couple of cavers were skinny enough to fit through a crack in a well-explored South African cave, we really don’t have a clue what else might be out there,” National Geographic Executive Editor for Science Jamie Shreeve writes in National Geographic magazine.
Yes, indeed. I couldn't agree more. We really have no idea of what could be out there, yet to be discovered and going in entirely new directions than 'accepted wisdom' would suggest it should.
