RT Journal Article
T1 The vertebrae and ribs of Homo naledi
A1 Williams, Scott
A1 García Martínez, Daniel
A1 Bastir, Markus
A1 Meyer, Marc
A1 Nalla, Shahed
A1 Hawks, John
A1 Schmid, Peter
A1 Churchill, Steven
A1 Berger, Lee
A2 Grabowski, Mark
A2 Taylor, Andrea
A2 Zanolli, Clément
AB Hominin evolution featured shifts from a trunk shape suitable for climbing and housing a large gut to a trunk adapted to bipedalism and higher quality diets. Our knowledge regarding the tempo, mode, and context in which these derived traits evolved has been limited, based largely on a small-bodied Australopithecus partial skeleton (A.L. 288-1; “Lucy”) and a juvenile Homo erectus skeleton (KNM-WT 15000; “Turkana Boy”). Two recent discoveries, of a large-bodied Australopithecus afarensis (KSD-VP-1/1) and two Australopithecus sediba partial skeletons (MH1 and MH2), have added to our understanding of thorax evolution; however, little is known about thorax morphology in early Homo. Here we describe hominin vertebrae, ribs, and sternal remains from the Dinaledi chamber of the Rising Star cave system attributed to Homo naledi. Although the remains are highly fragmented, the best-preserved specimens—two lower thoracic vertebrae and a lower rib—were found in association and belong to a small-bodied individual. A second lower rib may belong to this individual as well. All four of these individual elements are amongst the smallest known in the hominin fossil record. H. naledi is characterized by robust, relatively uncurved lower ribs and a relatively large spinal canal. We expect that the recovery of additional material from Rising Star Cave will clarify the nature of these traits and shed light on H. naledi functional morphology and phylogeny.
PB Elsevier
SN 0047-2484
YR 2017
FD 2017
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/100537
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/100537
LA eng
NO Williams, S. A., Garcia-Martinez, D., Bastir, M., Meyer, M. R., Nalla, S., Hawks, J., ... & Berger, L. R. (2017). The vertebrae and ribs of Homo naledi. Journal of Human Evolution, 104, 136-154.
NO We thank the many funding agencies that supported this work, in particular the National Geographic Society, the National Research Foundation, the Lyda Hill Foundation, and the Lee R. Berger Foundation for Exploration for particularly significant funding of the discovery, recovery, and analysis of this material. DGM and MB were funded through CGL2012-37279, MINECO, Spain, and a Leakey Research Grant to DGM. A visit to the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA; Tervuren, Belgium) by DGM was funded by the European Commission's Research Infrastructure Action via the Synthesys Project (BE-TAF-5639).SAW was funded through the New York University Research Challenge Fund.
NO National Geographic Society
NO National Research Foundation
NO Lyda Hill Foundation
NO Lee R. Berger Foundation for Exploration
NO Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España)
NO European Commission
NO New York University
DS Docta Complutense
RD 9 abr 2025