The nature of the access route into the Dinaledi Chamber, A deep subterranean chamber in the #RisingStarCave that we have hypothesized was used for cultural activities by #Homonaledi, has been one of the last critical issues for many critics of the “naledi burial hypothesis”. It seems to critics too difficult and inaccessible for most to believe this small-brained hominin could access such a remote space to perform complex cultural practices, particularly with a dead body in tow. In a newly released preprint entitled “Interpreting access to the Dinaledi Subsystem by Homo naledi: redefining the “Chute” as a labyrinth” (under review at @PlosOne and as a preprint now available @AfricaRxiv), Dirk van Rooyen and colleagues (which include me), present a richly illustrated discussion of this complex, and often misunderstood space. The takeaways from this article are that the “Chute” is not a “chute” as has been illustrated in countless representations (including our own scientific ones) but rather a complex labyrinth of passages that would have been much more easily accessible to Homo naledi than it is to contemporary humans, who struggle in the confined space. The paper attempts to correct the misrepresentation of the space as a tube or shaft, but rather a labyrinth of passages that give multiple options for the smaller-bodied Homo naledi to enter the chambers below. Thus renaming the space a #chutelabyrinth. In addition to this work, the paper illustrates that there is no evidence of another entrance into the Dinaledi chamber that has yet been discovered. It also highlights the fact that given the nature of the space, there is no need to invoke another, easier to access entrance, as it would make no difference to the taphonomic and sedimentological situation found within the Dinaledi subsystem even if there were one. The work also shows that the fall of the Dragon’s Back block, often argued to have changed the entrance to the Dinaledi subsystem, is also shown to be irrelevant, as it actually fell in front of the Chute labyrinth. Its falling therefore would not have changed the access opportunities for Homo naledi individuals to get into the space.

Australopithecus sediba, which lived approximately 2 million years ago, had the most humanlike hand anatomy, featuring a strong pinky muscle that suggests a capacity for precision gripping similar to later human species.Well – Tracy Kivell predicted that when we published and now – here you are! dx.laptrinhhocsinh.com/39155…