Homo naledi
A creature that would have walked upright really well but also would have been comfortable in the trees. ~ American paleoanthropologist William Harcourt-Smith
H. naledi lived in south Africa. The remains of 15 indi-viduals were found deep within a cave, not buried in sediment.
H. naledi had a bewildering blend of features: a body mass like that of small-bodied humans and the largest known australopiths; jaws and teeth consistent with Homo, but a small braincase (~500 cm2), even as its skull was shaped like early Homo; Homo-like legs attached to a flared pelvis like that of Au. afarensis; australopith shoulders and ribcage, but with Homo wrists and hands.
Naledi‘s brain was tiny. ~ American anthropologist John Hawks
The H. naledi bones were only 300,000 years old.
It is now evident that a diversity of hominin lineages existed, with some divergent lineages contributing DNA to living humans, and at least H. naledi representing a survivor from the earliest stages of diversification within Homo. ~ South African anthropologist Lee Berger et al
