How a new species of ancestors is changing our theory of human evolution, by Juliet Brophy [TEDTalk]

The last common ancestors between humans and chimps date back to 6-8 myo. The earliest hominins evolved into australopithecines, and these ones evolved into the genus Homo and eventually modern humans. The recent discovery of Homo naledi has determined a change in this phylogenetic tree. Overall, hominid fossils present certain trends from our earliest ancestors to modern humans, such as expansion of the braincase (relative to body size), our pelvis has become more bowl-shaped and our hand wrist morphology suggests a change in our grip as we started to use tools.

The newly found H. naledi remains disrupt what was originally thought about these evolutionary trends, because the anatomy of the skeletons didn’t make sense with the framework that was first proposed regarding human evolution. The morphology of H. naledi was truly a challenge to interpret, as it displayed a mosaic of both ape-like and derived features like no other species.The skull for example resembles more to an H. erectus but the brain size is was the smallest found in the Homo genus. Furthermore, this species coexisted in africa 300 thousand year ago with modern humans.

Homo naledi remains

Homo naledi discovery is and indicator that the classification of the genus homo leaves room for improvement and needs to be reassessed.

Watch the TED Talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xv4_L5zlYaA