H. Naledi: The Newest Root on the Family Tree

A new species of hominid has been discovered at the Rising Star Cave, about 40 kilometers NW of Johannesburg, South Africa. The new species, called H. naledi, differed morphologically in many ways from modern humans, but some structures, the teeth, hands and feet for example, are striking similar. The most remarkable part of this discovery is that the chamber in the cave where the remains of at least 15 individuals have been found, is not, and never has been accessible except by negotiating difficult climbs and narrow passages, requiring the skills of experienced (and small) cavers. The only conclusion that the researchers have been able to draw from this is that the corpses (ranging in age from the very young to the very old) were deliberately interred. Another of the walls we have built between ourselves and other species has apparently fallen!

I have seen only a few exterior shots of the cave, and have not yet been able to find its exact location. The placemark is on the Malapa area, which I have identified from the video below. Members will likely be interested, as I was, in Lee Berger's description of his use of Google Earth to find the general area. I am still searching in a circle 10 miles from the placemark, although Wikipedia gives a location only about 1 mile from the placemark.

Download File

Thank you washi. I really enjoyed watching these videos and learning about this exciting discovery.

I found the cave.







If you zoom in you can see a canopy or tent over the site, protecting it. Also, go back in time to 2013 and you see quite a bit of activity.

Great post.


Rising Star Cave.kmz (675 B)

Hi Gregg,

Thanks for sharing my fascination and enthusiasm. Your placemark is on Malapa Cave, I think, the site of the discovery of the Australopithecus sediba. (This is where I intended to put my placemark called Malapa. I put it at the point where Google Earth zoomed in, at 8:13 in the video. You were more persistent and found the site marked at 9:01.)

Australopithecus sediba is a species of Australopithecus of the early Pleistocene, identified based on fossil remains dated to about 2 million years ago. The species is known from six skeletons discovered in the Malapa Fossil Site at the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa, one a juvenile male (MH1 also called "Karabo", the holotype), an adult female (MH2, the paratype), an adult male, and three infants. The fossils were found together at the bottom of the Malapa Cave, where they apparently fell to their death, and have been dated to between 1.977 and 1.980 million years ago.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australopithecus_sediba

(The Wikipedia article on Malapa Fossil Site also points to your placemark.)

I was skeptical of your location for the Rising Star Cave because it was found in the video posted on You Tube in 2011, and Rick Hunter and Steven Tucker discovered the Dinaledi Chamber and the first specimens of H. naledi 2013. The reason I am skeptical about the location of Rising Star Cave provide by Wikipedia is that the historical imagery shows no evidence of human activity in that area between 2013 and 2015, the way the Malapa Cave site does. (I didn't really expect to see the small tent city established at the time of the dig, but I think enough people and vehicles have been there to leave a trace visible in the GE imagery. The different description of the location in the extensive and otherwise seeming accurate National Geographic site also raises my doubts. (I have attached some before and after screen shots of Malapa, as well as a photo of the site from Wikipedia.)

I won't be able to see it, of course, but those who can view NOVA may be interested:

"A PBS NOVA National Geographic documentary Dawn of Humanity, describing the discovery of H. naledi, was put online on 10 September 2015, and will be broadcast on 16 September 2015."

Oops. I didn't realize they are two separate caves.

Sept 15, 2015 5:03:27 GMT washi said:

I won't be able to see it, of course, but those who can view NOVA may be interested:

"A PBS NOVA National Geographic documentary Dawn of Humanity, describing the discovery of H. naledi, was put online on 10 September 2015, and will be broadcast on 16 September 2015."

The entire video is available online here: Dawn of Humanity.

Sorry, Gregg.

At some point I guess I realized that there were two discoveries and two sites involved, and I wasn't making it clear. I included the first video because of Berger's description of his use of Google Earth, his skillful telling of the tale, and his kid's charming segment. After I posted it, I was distracted by editing over a dozen times as I finally figured out that I could not name the graphics file the name of the genus. Once I figured out that the H word was verboten, I dragged off to bed.

I tried to follow your link, but got this message: "We're sorry, but this video is not available in your region due to right restrictions." As I said, I'm still not satisfied that the site for Rising Stare Cave I placemarked is correct. If you see any clues, please report to us.

Here are some segments of the program that are posted on You Tube:

(Just a Trailer)

After that, there were a bunch of sites that asked me to provide information that I didn't want to share.

Sept 15, 2015 19:06:11 GMT washi said:

Sorry, Gregg.

No need... in retrospect I should have known. For one thing, they are two different genera and finding them in the same cave would have been unlikely, to say the least.

Sept 15, 2015 19:06:11 GMT washi said:

I tried to follow your link, but got this message: "We're sorry, but this video is not available in your region due to right restrictions."

Bummer! I don't mean to rub your nose in it, but it's a great documentary.

I did find a clue to the location in mg.co.za/article/2013-11-27-rising-star-expedition-spelunks-down-cradle-of-humankind.

Another layer to this tale is that archaeologists have been in that area, looking for fossils, since 1947, Berger says. The site is about 15km from Malapa (where Berger found Australopithicus sediba fossils in 2008); 1km from Sterkfontein (where Mrs Ples, an Australopithicus africanus, was found) and 600m from Swartkrantz (where there is the oldest evidence of humans using fire).

The bit about Swartkrantz is a dead-end. Either the info is just wrong or the Wikipedia location is wrong. I think, though, that the "1km from Sterkfontein" is accurate. I saw things in the video that match that area, but I haven't found the spot yet.

Speaking of GE... one thing really struck me from that first Lee Berger video in the OP. We all take free satellite imagery for granted these days. Not so long ago (1997-99) Berger paid $20,000 for just two sheets of the area. We get it for free and still manage to find reasons to whine about it.