TY - JOUR
T1 - Homo naledi pelvic remains from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa
AU - VanSickle, Caroline
AU - Cofran, Zachary
AU - García-Martínez, Daniel
AU - Williams, Scott A.
AU - Churchill, Steven E.
AU - Berger, Lee R.
AU - Hawks, John
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the editor, associate editor, and reviewers who provided useful and encouraging feedback on earlier versions of this manuscript. We thank the many funding agencies that supported this work, in particular, the National Geographic Society and the National Research Foundation for particularly significant funding of the discovery, recovery, and analysis of this material. We also thank the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and the Evolutionary Studies Institute, as well as the South African National Centre of Excellence in PalaeoSciences for curating the material and hosting the authors while studying the material. We thank those who provided access to fossil and comparative modern human material: Bernhard Zipfel at Wits, Stephany Potze and Lazarus Kgasi at the Ditsong Museum, Brendon Billings and Jason Hemingway at the Wits School of Anatomical Sciences, and Gisselle Garcia at the American Museum of Natural History. We thank Milford Wolpoff, the University of Michigan Anthropology Department, and Karen Rosenberg for providing comparative cast materials. Contributions to mapping the cave system from the Speleological Exploration Club, the Free cavers and CROSA caving societies, are acknowledged. We thank the South African Heritage Resource Agency for the necessary permits to work on the Rising Star site; the Jacobs family for granting access; our exploration team consisting of Pedro Boshoff, Rick Hunter, and Steve Tucker; excavators K. Lindsay Eaves, Marina Elliot, Ellen Feuerriegel, Alia Gurtov, Hannah Morris, and Becca Peixotto; and Wilma Lawrence, Bonita De Klerk, Natasha Barbolini, Merrill Vanderwalt, and Justin Mukanku for their assistance during all phases of the project. We also thank the Paleontological Scientific Trust and the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin–Madison (JH) for providing additional funding for this research.
Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the editor, associate editor, and reviewers who provided useful and encouraging feedback on earlier versions of this manuscript. We thank the many funding agencies that supported this work, in particular, the National Geographic Society and the National Research Foundation for particularly significant funding of the discovery, recovery, and analysis of this material. We also thank the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and the Evolutionary Studies Institute, as well as the South African National Centre of Excellence in PalaeoSciences for curating the material and hosting the authors while studying the material. We thank those who provided access to fossil and comparative modern human material: Bernhard Zipfel at Wits, Stephany Potze and Lazarus Kgasi at the Ditsong Museum, Brendon Billings and Jason Hemingway at the Wits School of Anatomical Sciences, and Gisselle Garcia at the American Museum of Natural History. We thank Milford Wolpoff, the University of Michigan Anthropology Department, and Karen Rosenberg for providing comparative cast materials. Contributions to mapping the cave system from the Speleological Exploration Club, the Free cavers and CROSA caving societies, are acknowledged. We thank the South African Heritage Resource Agency for the necessary permits to work on the Rising Star site; the Jacobs family for granting access; our exploration team consisting of Pedro Boshoff, Rick Hunter, and Steve Tucker; excavators K. Lindsay Eaves, Marina Elliot, Ellen Feuerriegel, Alia Gurtov, Hannah Morris, and Becca Peixotto; and Wilma Lawrence, Bonita De Klerk, Natasha Barbolini, Merrill Vanderwalt, and Justin Mukanku for their assistance during all phases of the project. We also thank the Paleontological Scientific Trust and the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin?Madison (JH) for providing additional funding for this research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2018/12
Y1 - 2018/12
N2 - In the hominin fossil record, pelvic remains are sparse and are difficult to attribute taxonomically when they are not directly associated with craniodental material. Here we describe the pelvic remains from the Dinaledi Chamber in the Rising Star cave system, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, which has produced hominin fossils of a new species, Homo naledi. Though this species has been attributed to Homo based on cranial and lower limb morphology, the morphology of some of the fragmentary pelvic remains recovered align more closely with specimens attributed to the species Australopithecus afarensis and Australopithecus africanus than they do with those of most (but not all) known species of the genus Homo. As with A. afarensis and A. africanus, H. naledi appears to have had marked lateral iliac flare and either a weakly developed or non-existent acetabulocristal buttress or a distinct, albeit weakly developed, acetabulospinous buttress. At the same time, H. naledi has robust superior pubic and ischiopubic rami and a short ischium with a narrow tuberoacetabular sulcus, similar to those found in modern humans. The fragmentary nature of the Dinaledi pelvic assemblage makes the attribution of sex and developmental age to individual specimens difficult, which in turn diminishes our ability to identify the number of individuals represented in the assemblage. At present, we can only confidently say that the pelvic fossils from Rising Star represent at least four individuals based on the presence of four overlapping right ischial fossils (whereas a minimum of 15 individuals can be identified from the Dinaledi dental assemblage). A primitive, early Australopithecus-like false pelvis combined with a derived Homo-like true pelvis is morphologically consistent with evidence from the lower ribcage and proximal femur of H. naledi. The overall similarity of H. naledi ilia to those of australopiths supports the inference, drawn from the observation of primitive pelvic morphology in the extinct species Homo floresiensis, that there is substantial variation in pelvic form within the genus Homo. In the light of these findings, we urge caution in making taxonomic attributions—even at the genus level—of isolated fossil ossa coxae.
AB - In the hominin fossil record, pelvic remains are sparse and are difficult to attribute taxonomically when they are not directly associated with craniodental material. Here we describe the pelvic remains from the Dinaledi Chamber in the Rising Star cave system, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, which has produced hominin fossils of a new species, Homo naledi. Though this species has been attributed to Homo based on cranial and lower limb morphology, the morphology of some of the fragmentary pelvic remains recovered align more closely with specimens attributed to the species Australopithecus afarensis and Australopithecus africanus than they do with those of most (but not all) known species of the genus Homo. As with A. afarensis and A. africanus, H. naledi appears to have had marked lateral iliac flare and either a weakly developed or non-existent acetabulocristal buttress or a distinct, albeit weakly developed, acetabulospinous buttress. At the same time, H. naledi has robust superior pubic and ischiopubic rami and a short ischium with a narrow tuberoacetabular sulcus, similar to those found in modern humans. The fragmentary nature of the Dinaledi pelvic assemblage makes the attribution of sex and developmental age to individual specimens difficult, which in turn diminishes our ability to identify the number of individuals represented in the assemblage. At present, we can only confidently say that the pelvic fossils from Rising Star represent at least four individuals based on the presence of four overlapping right ischial fossils (whereas a minimum of 15 individuals can be identified from the Dinaledi dental assemblage). A primitive, early Australopithecus-like false pelvis combined with a derived Homo-like true pelvis is morphologically consistent with evidence from the lower ribcage and proximal femur of H. naledi. The overall similarity of H. naledi ilia to those of australopiths supports the inference, drawn from the observation of primitive pelvic morphology in the extinct species Homo floresiensis, that there is substantial variation in pelvic form within the genus Homo. In the light of these findings, we urge caution in making taxonomic attributions—even at the genus level—of isolated fossil ossa coxae.
KW - Australopithecus
KW - Hominin
KW - Pelvis
KW - Postcrania
KW - Rising Star
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2017.10.001
DO - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2017.10.001
M3 - Article
C2 - 29169681
AN - SCOPUS:85034600986
VL - 125
SP - 122
EP - 136
JO - Journal of Human Evolution
JF - Journal of Human Evolution
SN - 0047-2484
ER -