12 September 2020 | New Scientist | 39I
T WAS an astonishing discovery:
a chamber deep underground, packed
full of ancient human remains. The
excavators who uncovered the fossils
at South Africa’s Rising Star cave in 2013
described the experience as “breathtaking”
and “emotional”. Then they took a proper
look at the bones, and exhilaration gave way
to bewilderment. This new species of ancient
human, which the researchers called Homo
naledi, had such an odd combination of
primitive and modern features that it was
impossible to know how it was related to
other ancient humans and, ultimately, to us.
About 20 years ago, it looked like the
human evolutionary tree was coming into >MARINA^ LOE
BFeatures
Beyond
ancient DNA
Proteins extracted from the fossils of strange,
archaic humans could fill the gaps in our
evolutionary story, finds Colin Barras