Editing Human evolution (section)

=== The East African fossils ===
[[File:Fossil hominids.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Fossil]] [[hominid]] evolution display at [[The Museum of Osteology]], [[Oklahoma City]], Oklahoma, US]]

During the 1960s and 1970s, hundreds of fossils were found in East Africa in the regions of the [[Olduvai Gorge]] and [[Lake Turkana]]. These searches were carried out by the Leakey family, with [[Louis Leakey]] and his wife [[Mary Leakey]], and later their son [[Richard Leakey|Richard]] and daughter-in-law [[Meave Leakey|Meave]], fossil hunters and paleoanthropologists. From the fossil beds of Olduvai and Lake Turkana they amassed specimens of the early hominins: the australopithecines and ''Homo'' species, and even ''H.&nbsp;erectus''.

These finds cemented Africa as the cradle of humankind. In the late 1970s and the 1980s, [[Ethiopia]] emerged as the new hot spot of paleoanthropology after [[Lucy (Australopithecus)|"Lucy"]], the most complete fossil member of the species ''[[Australopithecus afarensis]]'', was found in 1974 by [[Donald Johanson]] near [[Hadar, Ethiopia|Hadar]] in the desertic [[Afar Triangle]] region of northern Ethiopia. Although the specimen had a small brain, the pelvis and leg bones were almost identical in function to those of modern humans, showing with certainty that these hominins had walked erect.{{sfn|Johanson|Edey|1981|pp=20–22, 184–185}} Lucy was classified as a new species, ''Australopithecus afarensis'', which is thought to be more closely related to the genus ''Homo'' as a direct ancestor, or as a close relative of an unknown ancestor, than any other known hominid or hominin from this early time range.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Human Lineage |last1=Cartmill |first1=Matt |last2=Smith |first2=Fred H. |last3=Brown |first3=Kaye B. |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=5TRHOmTUTP4C&pg=PA151 151] |date=2009 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |isbn=978-0-471-21491-5}}</ref> (The specimen was nicknamed "Lucy" after [[the Beatles]]' song "[[Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds]]", which was played loudly and repeatedly in the camp during the excavations.){{sfn|Johanson|Edey|1981|p=22}} The [[Afar Triangle]] area would later yield discovery of many more hominin fossils, particularly those uncovered or described by teams headed by [[Tim D. White]] in the 1990s, including ''[[Ardipithecus ramidus]]'' and ''[[Ardipithecus kadabba|A.&nbsp;kadabba]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Shreeve |first=Jamie |date=July 2010 |title=The Evolutionary Road |url= http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/07/middle-awash/shreeve-text |journal=National Geographic |issn=0027-9358 |access-date=May 28, 2015 |archive-date=January 26, 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160126024510/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/07/middle-awash/shreeve-text |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 2013, fossil skeletons of ''[[Homo naledi]]'', an [[extinct species]] of [[hominin]] assigned (provisionally) to the genus ''Homo'', were found in the [[Rising Star Cave]] system, a site in South Africa's [[Cradle of Humankind]] region in [[Gauteng]] province near [[Johannesburg]].<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.7554/eLife.09560 |volume=4 |title=''Homo naledi'', a new species of the genus ''Homo'' from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa |journal=eLife |pmid=26354291 |pmc=4559886 |date=September 10, 2015 |last1=Berger |first1=L. R. |last2=Hawks |first2=J. |last3=de Ruiter |first3=D. J. |last4=Churchill |first4=S. E. |display-authors=etal |doi-access=free}}{{collapsible list |title=Full list of authors |bullets=true |Lee R Berger |John Hawks |Darryl J de Ruiter |Steven E Churchill |Peter Schmid |Lucas K Delezene |Tracy L Kivell |Heather M Garvin |Scott A Williams |Jeremy M DeSilva |Matthew M Skinner |Charles M Musiba |Noel Cameron |Trenton W Holliday |William Harcourt-Smith |Rebecca R Ackermann |Markus Bastir |Barry Bogin |Debra Bolter |Juliet Brophy |Zachary D Cofran |Kimberly A Congdon |Andrew S Deane |Mana Dembo |Michelle Drapeau |Marina C Elliott |Elen M Feuerriegel |Daniel Garcia-Martinez |David J Green |Alia Gurtov |Joel D Irish |Ashley Kruger |Myra F Laird |Damiano Marchi |Marc R Meyer |Shahed Nalla |Enquye W Negash |Caley M Orr |Davorka Radovcic |Lauren Schroeder |Jill E Scott |Zachary Throckmorton |Matthew W Tocheri |Caroline VanSickle |Christopher S Walker |Pianpian Wei |Bernhard Zipfel}}</ref><ref name="NGS-20150910" /> {{As of|2015|9}}, fossils of at least fifteen individuals, amounting to 1,550 specimens, have been excavated from the cave.<ref name="NGS-20150910">{{cite web |last=Shreeve |first=Jamie |title=This Face Changes the Human Story. But How? |url= http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150910-human-evolution-change/ |date=September 10, 2015 |work=[[National Geographic News]] |access-date=September 10, 2015 |archive-date=April 14, 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180414054102/https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150910-human-evolution-change/ |url-status=dead}}</ref> The species is characterized by a body mass and stature similar to small-bodied human populations, a smaller [[Endocranium|endocranial]] volume similar to ''[[Australopithecus]]'', and a [[Skull|cranial]] [[Morphology (biology)|morphology]] (skull shape) similar to early ''Homo'' species. The skeletal anatomy combines primitive features known from [[australopithecine]]s with features known from early hominins. The individuals show signs of having been deliberately disposed of within the cave near the time of death. The fossils were dated close to 250,000 years ago,<ref>{{harvp|Dirks|Roberts|Hilbert-Wolf|Kramers|2017}}: between 335 and 236 ka. The lower limit of 236 ka is due to optically stimulated luminescence dating of sediments with U-Th and palaeomagnetic analyses of flowstones; the upper limit of 335 ka is due to U-series and electron spin resonance (US-ESR) dating of two ''H. naledi'' teeth, to {{val|253|82|70|u=ka}}, for an estimated age of the fossils of {{val|253|82|17|u=ka}}.</ref> and thus are not ancestral but contemporary with the first appearance of larger-brained [[anatomically modern humans]].<ref name="eLIFE-2017a">{{Cite journal |last1=Dirks |first1=Paul H. G. M. |first2=Eric M. |last2=Roberts |first3=Hannah |last3=Hilbert-Wolf |first4=Jan D. |last4=Kramers |first5=John |last5=Hawks |first6=Anthony |last6=Dosseto |first7=Mathieu |last7=Duval |first8=Marina |last8=Elliott |first9=Mary |last9=Evans |first10=Rainer |last10=Grün |first11=John |last11=Hellstrom |first12=Andy I. R. |last12=Herries |first13=Renaud |last13=Joannes-Boyau |first14=Tebogo V. |last14=Makhubela |first15=Christa J. |last15=Placzek |first16=Jessie |last16=Robbins |first17=Carl |last17=Spandler |first18=Jelle |last18=Wiersma |first19=Jon |last19=Woodhead |first20=Lee R. |last20=Berger |display-authors=4 |name-list-style=vanc |date=May 9, 2017 |title=The age of ''Homo naledi'' and associated sediments in the Rising Star Cave, South Africa |journal=eLife |volume=6 |pages=e24231 |pmid=28483040 |pmc=5423772 |doi=10.7554/eLife.24231 |doi-access=free}}{{collapsible list| title=Full list of authors| bullets=true| Paul H.G.M. Dirks| Eric M. Roberts| Hannah Hilbert-Wolf| Jan D. Kramers| John Hawks| Anthony Dosseto| Mathieu Duval| Marina Elliott| Mary Evans| Rainer Grün| John Hellstrom| Andy I.R. Herries| Renaud Joannes-Boyau| Tebogo V. Makhubela| Christa J. Placzek| Jessie Robbins| Carl Spandler| Jelle Wiersma| Jon Woodhead| Lee R. Berger}}</ref>