Tag: “previously unknown”

Video available on human ancestry discovery

Video available on human ancestry discovery

Lee Berger, FI’13, who is an ECWG member, made headline news in September 2015 when he announced the discovery in South Africa of a new early human-like species Homo naledi.

Berger gave ECWG members and their guests a preview of all of this in his Dec. 7, 2013 talk at an ECWG dinner at the Cosmos Club in Washington.

A DVD of this talk is one of the many available from the ECWG list of videos on the ECWG Videos page.  This talk includes a great deal of information on how Berger and his colleagues discovered the fossils. Among other things, he explains why slim, woman scientists were needed for the project’s success.

The treasure trove of fossils from at least 15 skeletons around 2 million years old was the cover story for the October 2015 National Geographic Magazine and the subject of a 60 Minutes show. This exciting discovery and collaboration with many international scientists appeared as a feature story around the world including the front page of the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal.

It’s still being widely discussed in scientific journals and magazines.