Primitive hominids may have lived in Africa at the same time as humans, researchers said Tuesday, in new findings that could change the understanding of human evolution.
Fossils found deep in South Africa’s Rising Star cave complex in 2013 have been dated by several expert teams with their findings suggesting the hominids, called Homo naledi, may have lived alongside Homo sapiens. It had earlier been thought that the hominids were millions of years old.
A team of 20 scientists from laboratories and institutions around the world, including in South Africa and Australia, established the age of the fossils which suggests that Homo naledi may well have lived at the same time as humans.
Their findings were published Tuesday in three papers in the journal eLife.
Drawing the timeline
“There has been a great deal of speculation on how old Homo naledi was,” said project leader and researcher at Wits University, Lee Berger.
But now, having established the age of the fossils using six independent methods, the team estimates that they are between 2,36,000 and 3,35,000-years-old — the beginning of the rise of modern human behaviour, said Professor Berger.
Rearcher John Hawks said, “Humans, relatives of humans and distant relatives of humans such as Homo naledi were living here in southern parts of Africa throughout most of all our evolutionary history over the past 1.5 to 2 million years.”
