New Human Ancestor Discovered: Homo naledi (EXCLUSIVE VIDEO) | National Geographic

We do have our genus. What these discoveries are telling us is that there's a lot out there to be found, that we actually don't have the whole story of human evolution. I mean, it looks like it might be a fragment of like the superorbital taurus or something. Oh my God, the Homo naledi fossils are extraordinary in a wide variety of ways.

We know they have the characters of an early member of the genus Homo. By comparing their morphology to other early hominids, we can see that we would place them right at the base of the lineage that leads to us. We've never seen a non-human that shares so many primitive and yet sometimes advanced characters: tiny brain, curved fingers, but a generally human-like hand, long legs, and a human foot.

You're looking at well over a dozen, in fact, probably around 18 different individuals representing all different age spans, from near fetal age to senile individuals who were at the last stages of their lives. When I first saw these images by my exploration team, I knew that we had to act.

The Rising Star cave system is one of the best known in South Africa. It's been caved continuously for more than 50 years. I had this fossil lying on the surface and I could see that it had been damaged, so I called National Geographic to put together an expedition. Fast, the entrance is very, very difficult to get to; you have to move through a seven-and-a-half-inch slot, wiggling your way across sharp rocks before you drop into this remarkable little chamber.

And the floor is quite literally comprised of parts of the bodies of these human ancestors. Look at this! Tell them they're a go to all collect! You got the fossil! It appears, based upon the context that we have discovered, this incredible assemblage of hominin fossils in is that they were deliberately placed there by their next of kin after death.

Homo naledi was doing something that until this moment we thought was unique to modern humans: that is, deliberate disposal of the dead. If this hypothesis holds true, that's an extraordinary thing. What Naledi has taught us is that there is clearly more out there that we didn't know.