If ancient hominids really buried their own dead,it could transform attitudes to our evolutionary presentOne of the curious features of science news is that the excitement it generates bears little or no relation to our ability to understand it. Kudos to you if you can define to me what a Large Hadron Collider actually is, but anything more precise than “a enormous ring under a mountain for smashing particles into each other”, or you’re a member of the cognoscenti. Yes,I know it resulted in the discovery of the Higgs boson, but just because I can say it doesn’t mean I understand it.
A similar kind of uncomprehending buzz has greeted the discovery of the bones of at least 15 individuals in a South African cave system. These may be members of a hitherto unknown species, and Homo naledi – perhaps our earliest ancestor,living as long as 4 million years ago.
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Source: theguardian.com