Tiny skull: 'ghost humans' live side by side with us for 100,000 years

Scientists have just successfully recreated a skull named Leti , the only complete skull representing the mysterious extinct Homo naledi species , approximately the same age as our species but short-lived.

According to the Daily Mail, 28 bone fragments (including 6 teeth) were found in a very deep place in the Rising Star cave in Johannesburg, South Africa. A team of scientists led by the University of Wits (South Africa) has grafted bone fragments and successfully reconstructed a tiny skull of a 4-6 year old individual, "with a combination of human characteristics but not us modern humans".

The Homo naledi skull is very small with a small brain, which also has many features of Southern Apes - (Image: University of Wits)

Professor Guy Berger from the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), a member of the research team, said the location of the excavation of the remains is very mysterious because it is not understood how the "human-like" child got to such a deep place. in the cave. It is also quite strange that all the bones are from the skull, there are no traces of any other body parts.

However, the reconstructed skull and skull fragments have given scientists a first-hand understanding of the "ghost human" Homo naledi to which the child belongs.

According to The Conversation, before that about 1,500 other fragmented remains belonging to about 15 individuals were unearthed in the area, showing that they had characteristics such as hands, wrists, feet . like modern humans. We Homo sapiens or Neanderthals.

The newly reconstructed skull, however, suggests that they were much more primitive, with a small brain and upper body that also bore many of the features of early Southern Apes . They have a much better climbing ability than modern humans, rather, quite similar to an ape.

Homo naledi is thought to have been born about 335,000 years ago, which is roughly the age of our Homo sapiens (about 300,000-350,000 years ago, according to studies). However, they only lived parallel to us on Earth for about 100,000 years, then went extinct about 236,000 years ago.

Called "ghost people" because the remains found from them are very small and do not contain much information, difficult to use to fully describe the identity, especially when there is no skull. Therefore, the new discovery is a big step for scientists to really understand about a lost "brother" of the genus Homo (Homo). There is no evidence of any meeting, coexistence or interbreeding between them and Homo sapiens.