Category: Palaeoscience
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Jury still out on Homo naledi, as majority of fossils remain in chamber
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In the dark and humid Dinaledi Chamber at the Cradle of Humankind, dozens – possibly hundreds – of fossils are still undisturbed. This week, National Geographic explorer-in-residence and Wits University professor Lee Berger announced the discovery of 15 individuals, which his team of international scientists claim is a new species,…
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The next best thing to a time machine
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A “man” stands naked in the centre of the studio. In the dim light cast from a lamp on a nearby table, you can see the threads of muscles running down his arms and cording up his legs. But something is wrong: his chest does not expand with air, he…
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From the Cradle to the grave? #NalediFossils
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They moved the bodies in one at a time, from the old with their worn teeth to newborn babies. If they had been modern humans, the Dinaledi Chamber would have been called a burial site. But the creatures are not human. Homo naledi (“naledi” means star in the local Sotho…