A New Human Ancestor Arises From The Depths Of A South African Cave

In 1964, Louis Leakey and colleagues proposed the name of Homo habilis , the “handyman,” for fossil remains of a human ancestor in Tanzania, making it the earliest species in a genus that includes us, Homo sapiens . This morning,
Lee Berger and colleagues announced the discovery of another long-lost relative: Homo naledi. Intriguingly, this new species presents a skeleton with some features that are surprisingly
modern and some features that are
surprisingly archaic. But since it has not yet been securely dated, how exactly H. naledi fits into our evolution is still a bit murky.