Its clappers were made for walking — and for climbing , and perhaps for peter making . That ’s the latest insight to emerge from the on-going analysis ofHomo Naledi , our new human relative , learn in 2013 in the deep , nigh inaccessible rise Star cave system in South Africa ’s Cradle of Humankind . A distich of report recently published inNature Communications — one on the creature ’s foot , and the other on the hand — paint a more detailed picture of these small - brained creature .
In thefoot field of study , a squad of researcher led by William Harcourt - Smith , a paleoanthropologist at Lehman College and a nonmigratory enquiry assistant at the American Museum of Natural History , examine 107 bones from the fundament ofH. Naledi , including one nearly everlasting adult foot .
“ The key determination is that this is a foot that is really , really homo - like in most esteem , ” Harcourt - Smith toldmental_floss . “ However , in such a man - like foot , we did also find a twain of feature of speech that are n’t so human - like . ”
He point to the brute ’s slenderly curved off-white in its toes — a more primitive lineament that may have been used to climb trees . It also seems to have had an archway that was quite low , which may have affect how it could have walked long distances on two legs , Harcourt - Smith says : “ That in itself is quite interesting , because it points to how these animals were experiment with walk upright . And , of course , bipedalism defines us as being human . ”
A digital reconstruction of theH. Naledifoot . ( a ) abaxial view . ( b ) Distal persuasion of the cuneiforms and cuboid showing transverse impish Reconstruction Period . ( c ) Medial scene prove the moderate longitudinal archway . Image credit : Harcourt - Smith et al . inNature Communications
In thehand field , a squad leave by paleoanthropologist Tracy Kivell , of the University of Kent ’s Skeletal Biology Research Centre , studied the close - complete hand ( it ’s miss one wrist off-white known as a pisiform ) ofH. Naledithat was found with the castanets still partly connected — an inordinately rarefied discovery . Some 150 hand os were unearth in the cave in all .
The 26 bones show a mix of characteristic that have never been ascertain before in any other hominin mintage , they say . The wrist ivory have adaptive features that would ’ve helpedH. Nalediuse tools ( though none have been discovered ) that are consistently observe only in advanced humans and Neanderthals . On the other hand , the finger bones are curve more than most australopiths — bipedal hominid like the 3.3 - million - yr - old Lucy — and very different from the straight fingers of human race and Neanderthals , which indicates the puppet spend a unspoiled amount of meter climb .
TheH. Naledibones have yet to be date , which means we do n’t know where they fit in among our hominian relatives . " Depending on how old ( geologically ) theH. nalediremains turn out to be , there will be important implications for interpreting the South African archeologic record , who made the various stone shaft that have been obtain , and what anatomic adaptations were necessary to craft these implement , " Kivell say in a statement mail tomental_floss .
The hand ofH. Naledi . ( a ) Palmar ( left ) and dorsal ( correct ) view of the right manus bone , ( Bel ) see in situ in semi - join with the decoration up and fingers flexed . The volar surface of the metacarpal bone ( Mc ) and dorsal surface of the intermediate phalanx ( IP ) can be seen . Image credit : Kivell et al . inNature Communications
When you put together the mostly New foot and the mod - primitive hand with other feature of theH. naledibody — especially the shoulder joint beseem for climbing and a tiny skull that is unquestionably un - human like in sizing — you get a pic of a creature that is perfectly unlike anything else in the fossil platter , Harcourt - Smith says . H. Naledi ’s unparalleled cortege of characteristics “ really speak to a unique experimentation with being good , with some part of the time drop being in the trees and some of the time walking around on the basis , ” he says .
They ’re not yet sure how the creature would have walked . “ We have n’t come up with a really good model how it moved yet , ” Harcourt - Smith says . “ It ’s a real conundrum . But I can tell you this : It would ’ve spending most of its sentence walk just . Its heel would ’ve struck the ground the way ours does , and when it was walk it would ’ve [ count ] distinct from us — but not that much so . ”
He continues , “ What ’s really interesting is that we always used to think with the genusHomothat one of the assay-mark of it was being a full upright , sort of obligate , 100 percent biped . But we now have a creature that we ’ve assigned toHomobased on its feet and skull , and yet it ’s not really walk upright 100 percent of the time . It raises as many interrogation as it answers about bipeds . ”
visualise out howH. naledimoved is one of the next prominent areas of inquiry for the understructure research worker . “ We really need to reconstruct the pace of this fauna , ” Harcourt - Smith says . “ That means working with all of the teams and come up with a really robust biomechanical rating of the whole . It ’ll be a few twelvemonth worth of work . ”
They ’re also going to inquire the national computer architecture , he says . “ We ’re going to be looking at the molecular structure , and that requires very high-pitched - solving CT scanning . ”
As for the manus , Kivell too will be peer inside . “ We have done microCT CAT scan of the handwriting bones and will next analyze the internal bony complex body part — trabecular and cortical bone — which can order us more information about function and how theH. naledihand was used , ” she toldmental_flossin an email .
While the scientific discipline continues , the scientist themselves seem to still be ride the high of the discovery of this unprecedentedly large assemblage of unparalleled clappers , and excited by what they can learn us about our evolutionary past .
“ When I got down there , it was fossil heaven , ” Harcourt - Smith say . “ There were so many different things . You never get these sorting of opportunities with this amount of stuff regain so quickly , and it really was an over-the-top privilege to work on . It ’s not normal to get this sort of hoarded wealth trove of cloth in one go . It ’s new territory in some ways . ”
