Homo naledi, a very primitive looking hominid, once believed to be a very ancient relative of modern humans, has been dated to a very recent period, in this paper (The age of Homo naledi and associated sediments in the Rising Star Cave, South Africa, by Paul HGM Dirks et al., DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24231, published May 9, 2017 Cite as eLife 2017;6:e24231) some 236 to 335 kya. And the abstract concludes:
"...We have constrained the depositional age of Homo naledi to a period between 236 ka and 335 ka. These age results demonstrate that a morphologically primitive hominin, Homo naledi, survived into the later parts of the Pleistocene in Africa, and indicate a much younger age for the Homo naledi fossils than have previously been hypothesized based on their morphology."
Primitive
A second paper (New fossil remains of Homo naledi from the Lesedi Chamber, South Africa, John Hawks, et al., DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24232 Published May 9, 2017 Cite as eLife 2017;6:e24232) points out its really primitive crania, which has a smaller size than that of H. habilis. And this creature lived side by side with our purported African ancestors!
Apparently there are two theories to explain H. naledi:
- It is a ancient relative of H. habilis and retained its primitive morphology in a branch that survived into the times of modern humans.
- It split later on, after H. habilis, maybe from Homo erectus and reverted into a primitive form.
Could these primitive hominids have admixed with Africans and enriched their genome with "diversity"? adding genes and variety that did not appear out of Africa because H. naledi were constrained to their Sub Saharan location?
An out of Africa origin of modern humans Asian (or even, an American) origin for modern humans, who later reached Africa and admixed with H. naledi would surely yield the current genetic variability.
Since Naledi is so young, perhaps viable DNA could be obtained and sequenced. Who can tell what that information will tell us!
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