Sotho-Naredi: The Case Of Homo Naledi

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Homo Naledi, a new species of human ancestry, was found thirty meters underground in a cave system in South Africa. The word Naledi means star in the South African language of Sotho. When researchers find a new link in our human evolution it is common to think that this discovery will overturn all past assumptions and become the new norm. More research will be needed to see if that is the case of Homo Naledi.
Famous researcher and paleoanthropologist Lee Berges received information that some cave explorers had been exploring the limestone tunnels of the Rising Star Cave outside Johannesburg South Africa. The Rising Star Cave system is an amazing discovery in itself. The entrance to the cave is a narrow and has a vertically oriented chute measuring only thirty nine feet long with an average width of 8 inches. After entering the narrow entrance to the cave there is a …show more content…

One of the most startling is the fact that we both felt the need to share in a ritualistic burial of our deceased. Another characteristic that we modern humans share with Homo Naledi is the shape of our teeth. Our teeth are virtually indistinguishable from one another. Homo Naledi’s feet are strikingly close to ours as well. News journalists obtained a quote from the research from Boston University, "Here we describe the foot of Homo from Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa, using 107 pedal elements, including one nearly-complete adult foot. The H. naledi foot is predominantly modern human-like in morphology and inferred function, with an adducted hallux, an elongated tarsus, and derived ankle and calcaneocuboid joints. In combination, these features indicate a foot well adapted for striding bipedalism. However, the H. naledi foot differs from modern humans in having more curved proximal pedal phalanges, and features suggestive of a reduced medial longitudinal arch”(UPI Space

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