As I type this just now, Lee Berger's Carnegie lecture about Homo naledi ecology has just ended. To be honest, I'm quite fatigued from livetweeting the lecture, so I will skip the preamble and jump straight into the discoveries and my thoughts. Berger begins the lecture by teasing a new Netflix docuseries releasing later this year and recounting his journey and the discovery of Rising Star, which takes up most of the broadcast. Now, we've the goodies. First, he discusses last year's infant skull found deep within remote fissures. This skull, which perhaps was overlooked by me initially so this may not be new information per se, was found isolated on top of a limestone shelf. Then I started getting anxious, he leaves this slightly open to interpretation—but he suggests that it was placed there. He starts to recall his first in-person experience with the cave, detailing his weight loss and struggle up and down the chute. Here's the meat and potatoes. In the chamber
Specializing in paleoanthropology.