Homo naledi
A small-brained human in a nearly inaccessible South African chamber — and it is far younger than it looks.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 99 thousand years
- Known to
- ± 20 thousand years
- Era
- Middle Pleistocene, Quaternary
Homo naledi was recovered from the Rising Star cave system in 2013 by a team of caver-scientists small enough to pass through an 18-centimetre squeeze. It has a brain about a third of modern size on a body with modern-looking feet and hands, and at least fifteen individuals were found deep in the chamber. The shock was the date: 335,000 to 236,000 years ago, meaning it lived alongside early Homo sapiens. Claims that it buried its dead and made engravings are strongly contested.