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An historical hominid dubbed Homo naledi might have lit managed fires within the pitch-dark chambers of an underground cave system, new discoveries trace.
Researchers have discovered remnants of small fireplaces and sooty wall and ceiling smudges in passages and chambers all through South Africa’s Rising Star cave complicated, paleoanthropologist Lee Berger introduced in a December 1 lecture hosted by the Carnegie Establishment of Science in Washington, D.C.
“Indicators of fireside use are in all places on this cave system,” stated Berger, of the College of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
H. naledi presumably lit the blazes within the caves since stays of no different hominids have turned up there, the crew says. However the researchers have but to this point the age of the hearth stays. And researchers exterior Berger’s group have but to judge the brand new finds.
H. naledi fossils date to between 335,000 and 236,000 years ago (SN: 5/9/17), around the time Homo sapiens originated (SN: 6/7/17). Many researchers suspect that common use of fireside by hominids for gentle, heat and cooking began roughly 400,000 years ago (SN: 4/2/12).
Such conduct has not been attributed to H. naledi earlier than, largely due to its small mind. However it’s now clear {that a} mind roughly one-third the scale of human brains at present nonetheless enabled H. naledi to realize management of fireside, Berger contends.
Final August, Berger climbed down a slim shaft and examined two underground chambers the place H. naledi fossils had been discovered. He seen stalactites and skinny rock sheets that had partly grown over older ceiling surfaces. These surfaces displayed blackened, burned areas and have been additionally dotted by what gave the impression to be soot particles, Berger stated.
In the meantime, expedition codirector and Wits paleoanthropologist Keneiloe Molopyane led excavations of a close-by cave chamber. There, the researchers uncovered two small fireplaces containing charred bits of wooden, and burned bones of antelopes and different animals. Stays of a fireside and close by burned animal bones have been then found in a extra distant cave chamber the place H. naledi fossils have been discovered.
Nonetheless, the primary problem for investigators can be to this point the burned wooden and bones and different hearth stays from the Rising Star chambers and reveal that the fireplaces there come from the identical sediment layers as H. naledi fossils, says paleoanthropologist W. Andrew Barr of George Washington College in Washington, D.C., who wasn’t concerned within the work.
“That’s a fully crucial first step earlier than it is going to be attainable to invest about who might have made fires for what motive,” Barr says.
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