These fossils include a skull and other remains from a Homo naledihominids species that lived about 250,000 years ago.
Scientists said that fossils found deep within a South African cave were part of the skull of a hominid infant. They were apparently left in an alcove by her species 250,000 years earlier.
This latest discovery adds to the mystery surrounding Homo aledia, a Stone Age hominid species discovered less than a decade back in the Cradle of Humankind. It is named after the remarkable fossils found there.
Lee Berger, the scientist responsible for the project, said that the real mystery surrounding this child is how she got there.
"Something extraordinary was happening in this cave between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago.
Researchers refer to the child "her", but they are not certain if it is a boy or a girl.
Because bones of children are too fragile and thin to sustain over time, researchers rarely find fossilized remains of them.
It was likely that the child was only four- to six years old at the time of its death. The baby teeth were still intact, and the adult teeth were just starting to emerge.
Nearly 2000 fossils were found in caves. Scientists have assembled partial skeletons from more than two dozen people.
In 2015, the first discovery made by Homo sapiens helped to complicate our understanding about human evolution. It showed that Homo sapiens lived alongside other hominins (hominids with anatomically modern men).
The new 28 skull fragments and six tooth were discovered in the cave complex 12 meters (40 feet away) from the main find. They were found through tiny crevices, which required the explorers literally to squeeze between the rock walls.
Reconstruction of Leti's skull, the first Homo naledi infant whose remains were discovered in Johannesburg's Rising Star Cave. Credit: Wits University
'Superman crawl'
The passage required that the explorers lay flat, pull themselves through the passage with their hands out in front of them in a "Superman crawl", then climb up a ridge dubbed "The Dragon's Back", according to Mathabela Tsikoane, a caver.
He said, "It's very difficult for a person who doesn't cave." "You must literally push yourself through."
The child Leti was named after the seTswana term "letimela", which means "the lost one" because of its distance from other finds.
Diagram of the Rising Star cave system, Johannesburg. Credit: Wits University
Homo Naledi might have had a much more straightforward journey to the cave than they did, since they were smaller than our modern-day humans.
Tebego Makhubela said that their bodies appeared to be well-adapted for climbing.
These are the remains of a baby. The skull was found intact and no other bones were discovered.
The self-proclaimed Cradle of Humankind, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site by the United Nations in 1999, consists of a series of limestone caves located 50 kilometres (30 mi) north of Johannesburg. The most recent discovery was made at 30 meters (100 feet) below the ground.
Dr Marina Elliott explores the Rising Star system of Johannesburg. Credit: Wits University
What is the death ritual?
Berger stated that the researchers believe that the skull may have been set there by other members of the species, which could be connected to rituals about the dead.
This is how he proposed a way of explaining the Homo Naledi site as a place for ritual burials.
Further evidence supporting this theory would be a significant rethinking of the human odyssey.
The earliest hominid rituals that were associated with death are believed to have been performed between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago.
The latest evidence could be a sign of grief, and perhaps beliefback to at least a quarter million years ago.
This discovery was published in two papers in the journal PaleoAnthropology by 21 researchers from South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand, and 13 other institutions worldwide.
Further exploration of Homo Naledi juvenile remains provides clues as to how our ancestors grew.
2021 AFP
