For more than a century, paleoanthropologists believed they had a fairly good understanding of the broad path of human evolution. Although many details remained uncertain, there seemed to be an overall pattern. As members of our evolutionary family became more human-like, their brains generally became larger. Their faces became flatter, their teeth smaller, their bodies better adapted for long-distance walking, and eventually they developed increasingly sophisticated tools, social lives, and perhaps symbolic thought. Then Homo naledi entered the picture.  
  
Few fossil discoveries in recent decades have challenged so many long-held assumptions. Almost every part of this species seems to contradict what scientists expected. It possessed a brain scarcely larger than that of an orange, yet many of its skeletal features appear remarkably modern. Its hands seem capable of precise manipulation, yet its shoulders and curved fingers reveal an animal still well adapted for climbing. Its feet look surprisingly human, while its torso appears primitive. Its teeth are unexpectedly small despite its tiny brain. Perhaps most intriguingly, some researchers have even suggested that many—or possibly all—of the individuals recovered from South Africa's Rising Star Cave system may have been female.  
  
Each of these mysteries, considered alone, would be fascinating. Together they make Homo naledi one of the most puzzling members of the human family ever discovered... More> [https://www.patreon.com/DreamerBooksAnIceAgeSaga/posts/homo-naledi-part-162167241?utm\_medium=clipboard\_copy&utm\_source=copyLink&utm\_campaign=postshare\_creator&utm\_content=join\_link](https://www.patreon.com/DreamerBooksAnIceAgeSaga/posts/homo-naledi-part-162167241?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link)

The Homo naledi Enigma (Part Two)