Homo naledi and Pleistocene hominin evolution in subequatorial Africa

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dc.citation.doi10.7554/eLife.24234en_ZA
dc.contributor.authorBerger, L.R.
dc.contributor.authorHawks, J.
dc.contributor.authorDirks, P.H.G.M.
dc.contributor.authorElliott, M.
dc.contributor.authorRoberts, E.M.
dc.date.accessioned2017-05-09T14:16:36Z
dc.date.available2017-05-09T14:16:36Z
dc.date.issued2017-05
dc.description.abstractNew discoveries and dating of fossil remains from the Rising Star cave system, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, have strong implications for our understanding of Pleistocene human evolution in Africa. Direct dating of Homo naledi fossils from the Dinaledi Chamber (Berger et al., 2015) shows that they were deposited between about 236 ka and 335 ka (Dirks et al., 2017), placing H. naledi in the later Middle Pleistocene. Hawks and colleagues (Hawks et al., 2017) report the discovery of a second chamber within the Rising Star system (Dirks et al., 2015) that contains H. naledi remains. Previously, only large-brained modern humans or their close relatives had been demonstrated to exist at this late time in Africa, but the fossil evidence for any hominins in subequatorial Africa was very sparse. It is now evident that a diversity of hominin lineages existed in this region, with some divergent lineages contributing DNA to living humans and at least H. naledi representing a survivor from the earliest stages of diversification within Homo. The existence of a diverse array of hominins in subequatorial comports with our present knowledge of diversity across other savanna-adapted species, as well as with palaeoclimate and paleoenvironmental data. H. naledi casts the fossil and archaeological records into a new light, as we cannot exclude that this lineage was responsible for the production of Acheulean or Middle Stone Age tool industries.en_ZA
dc.description.librarianSP2017en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationBerger, L.R. et al. 2017. Homo naledi and Pleistocene hominin evolution in subequatorial Africa. eLife 6; Article number e24234en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn2050-084X
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10539/22465
dc.journal.titleeLifeen_ZA
dc.journal.volume6en_ZA
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.publishereLife Sciences Publications Ltden_ZA
dc.rights© 2017. Copyright Berger et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.en_ZA
dc.subjectHomo naledien_ZA
dc.subjecthomininen_ZA
dc.subjectAfricaen_ZA
dc.subjectPleistoceneen_ZA
dc.subjectDinaledi Chamberen_ZA
dc.subjectRising Star caveen_ZA
dc.subjectHominin evolutionen_ZA
dc.subjectCradle of Humankinden_ZA
dc.subjecthuman evolutionen_ZA
dc.subjectSOUTH AFRICAen_ZA
dc.subjectsubequatorialen_ZA
dc.titleHomo naledi and Pleistocene hominin evolution in subequatorial Africaen_ZA
dc.typeArticleen_ZA
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