Pre-human ancestor believed to have used fire as a tool, researchers say

A momentous discovery in South Africa may flip our understanding of human historical past on its head. A non-human creature dubbed Homo naledi was found almost a decade in the past — and researchers now imagine the creature could have had a head begin on Homo sapiens, or people, in utilizing hearth as a device.

Renowned paleoanthropologist Lee Berger drew sharp criticism for hypothesizing Homo naledi was intentionally inserting its lifeless in a darkish, harmful underground chamber within the Rising Star caves simply exterior Johannesburg, South Africa. Some argued it wasn’t potential to navigate the complicated chamber with out mild.

“And the reason they didn’t believe it was because Homo naledi, with its tiny little brain just bigger than a chimpanzee, couldn’t have had fire,” Berger instructed CBS News.

The managed use of fireplace was supposedly distinctive to people, and for almost 10 years Berger’s staff discovered no proof the species used hearth — till Berger misplaced over 50 kilos so he may squeeze via the slender corridors himself for the very first time in August.

It was torture all the way in which down and he was exhausted when he lastly reached the underside.

“I looked up. And I realized the ceiling was black. It was burnt. It was covered in soot. It had been right above our heads the entire time,” Berger stated of his discovery.

It’s simple proof of fireplace. The similar day, lead investigator and paleoanthropologist Keneiloe Molopyane was making one other outstanding discover close by: “Pieces of bone … burnt bone,” she stated, which indicated they have been consuming there. 

After that, the staff noticed hearth all over the place.

“I suspect based on what we’re seeing, they’re not just carrying fire. I think they’re making it,” Berger stated. “And it’s done hundreds of thousands of years, perhaps, before maybe humans were doing it.”

Berger believes the invention will problem our assumptions about human uniqueness.

“It should make us think deeply about that way we have placed ourselves on a pedestal as something special, because Homo naledi is beginning to prove that it may have happened many times in the past,” he stated. 

“One of the reasons that humans are so harmful to the environment, to this world, is because we think we have some ownership of it,” he stated.

For Molopyane, a South African lady, it isn’t nearly a groundbreaking discovery.

“For a very long time, archeology and anthropology, all these discoveries made in Africa, have been made by men, mostly,” White males, she stated. “That is when we start taking back the narrative as Africans and we get to tell our stories now.”