Talks, field trips and events organised by west country geological organisations are publicised on this blog. Discussion about geological topics is encouraged. Anything of general geological interest is included.
Thursday, 10 September 2015
Homo naledi, a new species of human, discovered in a cave in South Africa
Homo or Australopithecus naledi apparently spent a lot of time wading bipedally in swamp forest or wetland, amid dense vegetation, in search for edible parts of papyrus, frogbit, waterlilies, snails etc (google aquarboreal).: this explains the remarkable combination of humanlike feet with long 1st & last toes (cf duck & seal, vs ostrich & antelope) + strongly curved hand phalanges (for climbing vertically in the branches above the swamp, google Ndoki gorilla). Many of not most of them must have died in the water, they got buried in the mud, later the swamp dried & sank into to cave? Geologists will be able to explain this in more detail when we'll know more about the site & its fossils, I'd think (google researchGate marc verhaegen).
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Homo or Australopithecus naledi apparently spent a lot of time wading bipedally in swamp forest or wetland, amid dense vegetation, in search for edible parts of papyrus, frogbit, waterlilies, snails etc (google aquarboreal).: this explains the remarkable combination of humanlike feet with long 1st & last toes (cf duck & seal, vs ostrich & antelope) + strongly curved hand phalanges (for climbing vertically in the branches above the swamp, google Ndoki gorilla). Many of not most of them must have died in the water, they got buried in the mud, later the swamp dried & sank into to cave? Geologists will be able to explain this in more detail when we'll know more about the site & its fossils, I'd think (google researchGate marc verhaegen).
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