Skeletons of New human-like species found in S Africa

Scientists have discovered a new human-like species in a burial chamber deep in a cave system in South Africa. The discovery of 15 partial skeletons is the largest single discovery of its type in Africa. The researchers claim that the discovery will change ideas about our human ancestors. The studies which have been published in the journal Elife also indicate that these individuals were capable of ritual behavior.The species, which has been named naledi, has been classified in the grouping, or genus,Homo, to which modern humans belong. The researchers who made the find have not been able to find out how long ago these creatures lived - but the scientist who led the team, Prof Lee Berger, told  that he believed they could be among the first of our kind (genus Homo) and could have lived in Africa up to three million years ago.Like all those working in the field, he is at pains to avoid the term "missing link". Prof Berger says naledi could be thought of as a "bridge" between more primitive bipedal primates and humans.

"We'd gone in with the idea of recovering one fossil. That turned 

into multiple fossils. That turned into the discovery of multiple skeletons and multiple individuals. And so by the end of that remarkable 21-day experience, we had discovered the largest assemblage of fossil human relatives ever discovered in the history of the continent of Africa. That was an extraordinary experience." Prof Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum said naledi was "a very important discovery"."What we are seeing is more and more species of creatures that suggests that nature was experimenting with how to evolve humans, thus giving rise to several different types of human-like creatures originating in parallel in different parts of Africa. Only one line eventually survived to give rise to us," he told.

I went to see the bones which are kept in a secure room at Witwatersrand University. The door to the room looks like one that would seal a bank vault. As Prof Berger turned the large lever on the door, he told me that our knowledge of very early humans is based on partial skeletons and the occasional skull.I was astonished to see how well preserved the bones were. The skull, teeth and feet looked as if they belonged to a human child - even though the skeleton was that of an elderly female. Its hand looked human-like too, up to its fingers which curl around a bit like those of an ape.

Homo naledi is unlike any primitive human found in Africa. It has a tiny brain - about the size of a gorilla's and a primitive pelvis and shoulders. But it is put into the same genus as humans because of the more progressive shape of its skull, relatively small teeth, characteristic long legs and modern-looking feet. "I saw something I thought I would never see in my career," Prof Berger told me.

"It was a moment that 25 years as a paleoanthropologist had not prepared me for." One of the most intriguing questions raised by the find is how the remains got there.