Discovery of 2.8 million-year-old fossils reveals 'Homo naledi'

Archaeologists hid the find for two years

Archaeologists have discovered 1,500 fossils dated 2.8 million-years-old in a subterranean chamber just outside Johannesburg South Africa in an area called the "Cradle of Humankind."

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (Catholic Online) - The fossils were originally discovered in 2013 and scientists believed they were the "largest group of individuals ever found in one place anywhere in the world."

The only way to reach the fossils was to squeeze through a 10-inch-wide gap between subterranean rocks. Archaeologists named the gap "Superman's Crawl" and encouraged only short, thin archaeologists apply to enter the chamber. 

After making their way through Superman's Crawl, archaeologists then had to walk through several caves and drop vertically 10-yards into the chamber.

The archaeologists were able to contain the discovery for two years while they continued to search for more fossils, but eventually realized that access to the cave was too hard and the fossils too delicate to continue research by going back-and-forth. 

Amateur climbers were asked to help reach the fossils and, with the help of specialists, returned them to the surface.

Professor Lee Berger, head of the paleontology team at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and leader of the discovery team, announced the fossils were the remains of a new human species -"Homo naledi."

He described their brains as being the size of an orange and their bodies shaped similarly to modern-human bodies. The hands and feet were similar, but the fingers were longer and curved.

The number of fossils compose the bodies of hundreds of early human families dating as far back as 2.8 million years, experts say.

Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa's deputy president, told Fox News, "history books will have to be rewritten."

Tim White from the University of California, Berkely, toold the Associated Press the bones could actually "belong to a primitive Homo erectus, a species named in the 1800s, but the team from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg maintain the fossils belong to Homo naledi.

Berger said, "Research on these finds will continue for decades to come. This is an entire anatomy of a new species that connects to early members of our genus."

The chamber they reside is a 30-square-foot section of the Dinaledi Chamber and Berger's team believes the bodies were intentionally left there.

"This is a new species of human that deliberately disposed of bodies in this chamber," Berger explained. He said the placement of the bodies make them seem to have been dropped down a chute at the entrance of the chamber.

"Now, with Homo Naledi, we have evidence of the world's first burial site," he said.

The fossils will be displayed for the public for one month beginning September 11 at Maropeng before more research will be done.

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