1 00:00:01,133 --> 00:00:02,500 - Welcome everyone to We dnesday Nite @ the Lab. 2 00:00:02,600 --> 00:00:03,900 I'm Tom Zinnen. 3 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:06,300 I work here at the UW-Madison Biotechnology Center. 4 00:00:06,400 --> 00:00:08,933 I also work for UW-Extension, Cooperative Extension, 5 00:00:09,033 --> 00:00:11,433 and on behalf of those folks and our other co-organizers, 6 00:00:11,533 --> 00:00:13,833 the Wisconsin Alumni Association, 7 00:00:13,933 --> 00:00:15,533 Wisconsin Public Television 8 00:00:15,633 --> 00:00:17,433 and the UW-Madison Science Alliance, 9 00:00:17,533 --> 00:00:19,933 thanks again for coming to We dnesday Nite @ the Lab. 10 00:00:20,033 --> 00:00:24,500 We do this every Wednesday night, 50 times a year. 11 00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:26,566 Back on September 10th of last year, 12 00:00:26,666 --> 00:00:28,800 I had the pleasure of going to give a talk 13 00:00:28,900 --> 00:00:32,333 at the biotechnology class at the Verona Area High School. 14 00:00:32,433 --> 00:00:34,166 It had happened that the news of the discovery 15 00:00:34,266 --> 00:00:39,833 of a new hominin, Homo naledi, had broken just that morning. 16 00:00:39,933 --> 00:00:42,900 The UW had played key roles in characterizing 17 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:44,866 and describing this new species, 18 00:00:44,966 --> 00:00:46,833 so I asked the students at Verona 19 00:00:46,933 --> 00:00:49,266 about their take on that story. 20 00:00:49,366 --> 00:00:52,533 They're only about 12 miles from this rather remarkable 21 00:00:52,633 --> 00:00:54,866 public land grant research university. 22 00:00:54,966 --> 00:00:56,333 I wanted to get an idea 23 00:00:56,433 --> 00:00:59,100 of what they had gleaned from the media. 24 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:01,833 There was one girl in the class, she was a little shy, 25 00:01:01,933 --> 00:01:05,266 but she sure seemed to know a lot about that work. 26 00:01:05,366 --> 00:01:08,266 And I asked her how she knew so much about it. 27 00:01:08,366 --> 00:01:11,633 And she said, "Well, John Hawks is my dad." 28 00:01:11,733 --> 00:01:16,400 (audience laughs) 29 00:01:21,366 --> 00:01:24,100 And she was pretty proud about that. 30 00:01:24,200 --> 00:01:27,066 It's a great delight to get to welcome back John Hawks. 31 00:01:27,166 --> 00:01:29,733 This is at least the third time he's been here. 32 00:01:29,833 --> 00:01:31,800 He is the Vilas-Borghesi 33 00:01:31,900 --> 00:01:35,800 Distinguished Achievement Professor of Anthropology. 34 00:01:35,900 --> 00:01:37,466 And we get to hear tonight 35 00:01:37,566 --> 00:01:39,900 about one of his finest achievements. 36 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:43,400 It's a story that has already become a point of pride 37 00:01:43,500 --> 00:01:46,066 for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 38 00:01:46,166 --> 00:01:50,700 But Professor Hawks has an even more splendid achievement: 39 00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:54,066 he has made his daughter proud of her dad. 40 00:01:54,166 --> 00:01:55,300 (audience laughs) 41 00:01:55,400 --> 00:01:57,000 Please join me in welcoming John Hawks 42 00:01:57,100 --> 00:01:58,666 back to We dnesday Nite @ the Lab. 43 00:01:58,766 --> 00:02:01,833 (applause) 44 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:09,333 - Wow! 45 00:02:09,433 --> 00:02:11,700 Thank you everybody for coming out tonight. 46 00:02:11,800 --> 00:02:13,333 I see some familiar faces out there. 47 00:02:13,433 --> 00:02:15,500 I see a lot of faces I haven't seen before. 48 00:02:15,600 --> 00:02:18,000 I'm so pleased that all of you have come in to hear 49 00:02:18,100 --> 00:02:20,766 about this work that we're doing here at the university 50 00:02:20,866 --> 00:02:24,466 and in collaboration with our colleagues in South Africa. 51 00:02:24,566 --> 00:02:26,000 It's really exciting stuff. 52 00:02:26,100 --> 00:02:29,633 And this is just the first phase of the research. 53 00:02:29,733 --> 00:02:32,066 Tom told you about my daughter Sophie. 54 00:02:32,166 --> 00:02:35,233 She is the only, to my knowledge, high school girl 55 00:02:35,333 --> 00:02:39,366 who's actually helped to pack materials for Homo naledi 56 00:02:39,466 --> 00:02:41,866 in the vault in South Africa where they are. 57 00:02:41,966 --> 00:02:44,866 So, you know, she had a ringside seat during the workshop 58 00:02:44,966 --> 00:02:46,533 when we were describing this stuff. 59 00:02:46,633 --> 00:02:48,900 I'll say a couple of words about it 60 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:51,766 and how we came to involve 61 00:02:51,866 --> 00:02:54,066 so many people in this description. 62 00:02:54,166 --> 00:02:56,533 But it has been really special for me 63 00:02:56,633 --> 00:02:59,333 to be a part of it from the very beginning. 64 00:02:59,433 --> 00:03:00,833 It's been an enormous privilege 65 00:03:00,933 --> 00:03:04,533 to be working on this project at the Rising Star Cave 66 00:03:04,633 --> 00:03:07,400 because our work with National Geographic, 67 00:03:07,500 --> 00:03:10,400 which comes through our project director, Lee Berger, 68 00:03:10,500 --> 00:03:13,866 he's a National Geographic explorer in residence, 69 00:03:13,966 --> 00:03:17,266 has enabled us to have a lot of media resources 70 00:03:17,366 --> 00:03:19,466 on site from the very beginning. 71 00:03:19,566 --> 00:03:22,800 And actually my project here at the University of Wisconsin, 72 00:03:22,900 --> 00:03:25,566 developing the massive open online course, 73 00:03:25,666 --> 00:03:28,600 we delivered that two years ago now this spring 74 00:03:28,700 --> 00:03:30,833 to 40,000 people around the world. 75 00:03:30,933 --> 00:03:32,600 And that was being organized 76 00:03:32,700 --> 00:03:34,666 at the time that this project began. 77 00:03:34,766 --> 00:03:36,600 So we actually had a lot of 78 00:03:36,700 --> 00:03:39,033 University of Wisconsin video resources on hand. 79 00:03:39,133 --> 00:03:42,200 So we have a unique documentation 80 00:03:42,300 --> 00:03:45,833 of the project actually from the very point of discovery. 81 00:03:45,933 --> 00:03:47,300 And that's a great privilege for me 82 00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:50,200 because I have the resources to be able to show you 83 00:03:50,300 --> 00:03:52,866 some of these things in people's own words, 84 00:03:52,966 --> 00:03:54,833 so that you can see what's going on 85 00:03:54,933 --> 00:03:56,833 at the site as we're excavating. 86 00:03:56,933 --> 00:04:00,633 And the first thing I'd like to show is a word 87 00:04:00,733 --> 00:04:02,933 from one of the cavers who was responsible 88 00:04:03,033 --> 00:04:05,966 for the initial discovery of the bones in the cave. 89 00:04:06,066 --> 00:04:07,966 He gives you a first-hand account 90 00:04:08,066 --> 00:04:11,033 of how they came to discover these bones. 91 00:04:17,766 --> 00:04:20,633 - Caving has always been great. 92 00:04:20,733 --> 00:04:22,266 Caving, you want to answer the question 93 00:04:22,366 --> 00:04:24,133 of what's around the next corner. 94 00:04:24,233 --> 00:04:26,200 That's always the question you want to know. 95 00:04:26,300 --> 00:04:29,433 It's mostly fueled by curiosity. 96 00:04:29,533 --> 00:04:32,066 But as you get into caving more and more, 97 00:04:32,166 --> 00:04:34,066 the scientific side of it comes into it. 98 00:04:34,166 --> 00:04:37,066 You want to know, how did these places form? 99 00:04:37,166 --> 00:04:39,966 What happened here millions of years ago? 100 00:04:40,066 --> 00:04:41,633 What happened here billions of years ago? 101 00:04:41,733 --> 00:04:44,000 Basically, it creates a fascination 102 00:04:44,100 --> 00:04:45,966 with this whole environment. 103 00:04:46,066 --> 00:04:48,066 In my wildest dreams I would never have thought 104 00:04:48,166 --> 00:04:51,633 that caving would take me to what's happening here. (laughs) 105 00:04:51,733 --> 00:04:53,700 You could almost call this a bit of an accident. 106 00:04:53,800 --> 00:04:57,433 So, my caving buddy and me, Rick, 107 00:04:57,533 --> 00:05:01,700 we were off exploring this cave on a Friday night. 108 00:05:01,800 --> 00:05:05,733 We'd gone into a very remote section of the cave, 109 00:05:05,833 --> 00:05:07,833 a part that I had never been in before. 110 00:05:07,933 --> 00:05:12,400 And in that section, we stumbled upon fossils. 111 00:05:12,500 --> 00:05:13,900 (laughs) 112 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:18,133 Yeah, at first, we didn't exactly know what fossils yet. 113 00:05:18,233 --> 00:05:20,233 We started looking around a bit more 114 00:05:20,333 --> 00:05:22,066 until we found a mandible. 115 00:05:22,166 --> 00:05:24,600 And that's when we knew this was probably hominid. 116 00:05:24,700 --> 00:05:27,433 That was when we got excited about it. (laughs) 117 00:05:27,533 --> 00:05:30,166 And since this discovery, 118 00:05:30,266 --> 00:05:33,133 it's (laughs) crazy what's happening here. 119 00:05:35,566 --> 00:05:38,733 Pedro Boshoff is a geologist. 120 00:05:38,833 --> 00:05:43,100 He's been caving in this country for 50-plus years. 121 00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:47,900 And he was asked by Lee to basically go and look for fossils 122 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:50,400 in deep sort of areas of caves. 123 00:05:50,500 --> 00:05:52,600 And he'd then spoken to myself 124 00:05:52,700 --> 00:05:54,233 and Rick and a few others and said 125 00:05:54,333 --> 00:05:58,866 he needs us to come start looking for hominids. (laughs) 126 00:05:58,966 --> 00:06:00,166 And on this whole expedition, 127 00:06:00,266 --> 00:06:02,633 he has been in charge of the cavers, 128 00:06:02,733 --> 00:06:06,066 coordinating who is here and what we have to do 129 00:06:06,166 --> 00:06:08,700 and getting everything organized for us. 130 00:06:09,900 --> 00:06:12,533 And since the start of this expedition, 131 00:06:12,633 --> 00:06:15,066 from the cavers' side we've been putting in 132 00:06:15,166 --> 00:06:17,766 over two kilometers of cabling. 133 00:06:17,866 --> 00:06:21,300 Those are for cameras and lights, 134 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:24,033 communications within the cave. 135 00:06:24,133 --> 00:06:26,533 And we've also put up safety ropes 136 00:06:26,633 --> 00:06:27,966 straight throughout the cave, 137 00:06:28,066 --> 00:06:30,300 for the safety of the scientists, 138 00:06:30,400 --> 00:06:31,633 making sure there's no injuries. 139 00:06:31,733 --> 00:06:33,433 And we're here for backup. 140 00:06:33,533 --> 00:06:34,833 In case something does go wrong, 141 00:06:34,933 --> 00:06:37,733 we are here to assist as soon as possible. 142 00:06:40,866 --> 00:06:43,466 - This is Lee Berger, who's the director of the project. 143 00:06:43,566 --> 00:06:46,233 These guys were interested in working with Lee 144 00:06:46,333 --> 00:06:48,733 potentially because Lee had been responsible 145 00:06:48,833 --> 00:06:52,900 for the discovery of a fossil named Australopithecus sediba. 146 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:56,866 That discovery happened in 2008-2009 147 00:06:56,966 --> 00:06:58,466 and those results have been published 148 00:06:58,566 --> 00:07:00,066 over the last six years. 149 00:07:00,166 --> 00:07:02,600 They got a lot of attention as creating 150 00:07:02,700 --> 00:07:04,666 a new process of discovery 151 00:07:04,766 --> 00:07:06,866 where people were exploring new caves. 152 00:07:06,966 --> 00:07:08,800 And Lee had gone over the ground 153 00:07:08,900 --> 00:07:11,166 across the entire world heritage site, 154 00:07:11,266 --> 00:07:13,833 it's called The Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, 155 00:07:13,933 --> 00:07:16,766 mapping caves that hadn't been previously mapped. 156 00:07:16,866 --> 00:07:19,200 So these guys who work underground, 157 00:07:19,300 --> 00:07:22,066 it's their hobby to go into caves on the weekends 158 00:07:22,166 --> 00:07:23,433 and try to push the boundaries, 159 00:07:23,533 --> 00:07:26,100 go into parts of caves where they didn't know 160 00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:28,100 that anybody had ever been before. 161 00:07:28,200 --> 00:07:31,633 And they said, "Sometimes we see bones when we do this. 162 00:07:31,733 --> 00:07:33,333 "Maybe we can work with you 163 00:07:33,433 --> 00:07:35,500 "and we might find something too." 164 00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:38,700 And of course Lee said, "That's wonderful!" 165 00:07:38,800 --> 00:07:40,400 I've talked to him about it many times. 166 00:07:40,500 --> 00:07:42,366 He did not expect that the first cave 167 00:07:42,466 --> 00:07:46,166 that they went into we would make a massive discovery. 168 00:07:46,266 --> 00:07:49,266 And yet it was his philosophy 169 00:07:49,366 --> 00:07:52,366 that when you're going to start something systematically, 170 00:07:52,466 --> 00:07:54,000 you go into your backyard first. 171 00:07:54,100 --> 00:07:55,633 Go to the places that you know. 172 00:07:55,733 --> 00:07:59,266 And the Rising Star Cave, which is underneath this hillside, 173 00:07:59,366 --> 00:08:00,800 which is pretty nondescript, 174 00:08:00,900 --> 00:08:04,366 this hillside is basically a chert dolomite hillside, 175 00:08:04,466 --> 00:08:07,900 and inside of it are more than a kilometer 176 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:09,500 of underground passageways 177 00:08:09,600 --> 00:08:12,866 that make up the Rising Star Cave system. 178 00:08:12,966 --> 00:08:15,033 This is a small part of the system map 179 00:08:15,133 --> 00:08:18,000 that shows you the area that we're actually working in, 180 00:08:18,100 --> 00:08:19,766 from our entrance to the chamber 181 00:08:19,866 --> 00:08:23,633 where we found the massive fossil deposit. 182 00:08:23,733 --> 00:08:27,200 In this kilometer of underground passageways, 183 00:08:27,300 --> 00:08:29,266 are lots of twisty-turny routes. 184 00:08:29,366 --> 00:08:31,200 And you get into them really quickly 185 00:08:31,300 --> 00:08:32,866 after you go into the cave. 186 00:08:32,966 --> 00:08:35,200 How many of you folks have been in a cave? 187 00:08:35,300 --> 00:08:37,433 How many of you have been in a cave? 188 00:08:37,533 --> 00:08:39,533 Been in a cave, yeah. Okay, brilliant. 189 00:08:39,633 --> 00:08:41,466 How many of you have been in a cave 190 00:08:41,566 --> 00:08:44,733 where you have to crawl on your hands and knees somewhere? 191 00:08:44,833 --> 00:08:46,266 Okay. 192 00:08:46,366 --> 00:08:48,633 And how many of you have actually had to squeeze 193 00:08:48,733 --> 00:08:52,133 so that rock was against your front and back? 194 00:08:52,233 --> 00:08:53,400 Yeah. 195 00:08:53,500 --> 00:08:55,233 This, if you haven't done it, 196 00:08:55,333 --> 00:08:58,166 can be a really terrifying experience. 197 00:08:58,266 --> 00:08:59,900 If you're claustrophobic at all, 198 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:02,233 this is a real problem situation. 199 00:09:02,333 --> 00:09:05,400 But this is the situation that the Rising Star Cave poses. 200 00:09:05,500 --> 00:09:07,433 And it's why our cavers like it. 201 00:09:07,533 --> 00:09:09,333 Because you can get into those kinds of 202 00:09:09,433 --> 00:09:12,433 really hairy places right after the entrance. 203 00:09:12,533 --> 00:09:15,433 So, you don't have to spend all day caving underground 204 00:09:15,533 --> 00:09:17,100 to get somewhere really interesting. 205 00:09:17,200 --> 00:09:18,733 And it's a great place to bring people 206 00:09:18,833 --> 00:09:21,166 to train them on that kind of caving. 207 00:09:21,266 --> 00:09:23,933 So, people were really familiar with this cave, 208 00:09:24,033 --> 00:09:26,000 and it's been known in the caving community 209 00:09:26,100 --> 00:09:28,133 for more than 50 years. 210 00:09:28,233 --> 00:09:32,266 It lies less than a mile-and-a-half 211 00:09:32,366 --> 00:09:36,566 from at least six very famous fossil sites, 212 00:09:36,666 --> 00:09:39,833 including two that have been investigated systematically 213 00:09:39,933 --> 00:09:42,866 for more than 70 years for hominin fossils. 214 00:09:42,966 --> 00:09:46,466 So, it's in a very fossil-rich environ. 215 00:09:46,566 --> 00:09:50,933 But fossils had never been noticed in this cave before. 216 00:09:51,033 --> 00:09:55,000 The reason why probably is that these really narrow passages 217 00:09:55,100 --> 00:09:56,800 and twists and turns make it 218 00:09:56,900 --> 00:09:59,700 really hard to access these bones. 219 00:09:59,800 --> 00:10:01,933 So, when you saw these guys sort of squeezing through 220 00:10:02,033 --> 00:10:03,833 that super narrow place, 221 00:10:03,933 --> 00:10:07,200 the way that we reach the Dinaledi chamber, 222 00:10:07,300 --> 00:10:10,133 where we are now excavating fossil hominins, 223 00:10:10,233 --> 00:10:13,733 is by going down a vertical drop. 224 00:10:13,833 --> 00:10:15,933 You can see it there on the edge of the graph. 225 00:10:16,033 --> 00:10:18,333 The Dinaledi chamber is on the far right side. 226 00:10:18,433 --> 00:10:20,633 And there's this vertical little drop 227 00:10:20,733 --> 00:10:25,166 that is about a 12-meter vertical decent 228 00:10:25,266 --> 00:10:26,833 that has a minimum width in it 229 00:10:26,933 --> 00:10:30,566 of about seven-and-a-half inches, 18 centimeters. 230 00:10:30,666 --> 00:10:32,300 So in order to get down that, 231 00:10:32,400 --> 00:10:35,800 you have to have the climbing ability to do it. 232 00:10:35,900 --> 00:10:38,266 And Steve, who you saw talking there in the video, 233 00:10:38,366 --> 00:10:40,600 when he initially found this, the reason why 234 00:10:40,700 --> 00:10:43,666 is that he had climbed up this dragons back, 235 00:10:43,766 --> 00:10:46,533 which is this ridge of rock-fall 236 00:10:46,633 --> 00:10:48,533 that has come down in the distant past. 237 00:10:48,633 --> 00:10:52,166 And so you have to climb it, and you get up to the top of it 238 00:10:52,266 --> 00:10:55,433 and there this little narrow sort of, I don't know, 239 00:10:55,533 --> 00:10:58,933 entryway that you can sort of hang out in. 240 00:10:59,033 --> 00:11:02,233 And he had wedged himself down in this crack to rest, 241 00:11:02,333 --> 00:11:04,600 and he noticed that he didn't touch the bottom. 242 00:11:04,700 --> 00:11:06,533 And so he did exactly what your or I 243 00:11:06,633 --> 00:11:08,100 would have done in the same situation. 244 00:11:08,200 --> 00:11:10,800 (audience laughs) 245 00:11:10,900 --> 00:11:12,366 He said, "I wonder what's down there?" 246 00:11:12,466 --> 00:11:13,866 (cables swooshing) 247 00:11:13,966 --> 00:11:15,400 And he went down 12 meters, 248 00:11:15,500 --> 00:11:17,100 and Rick followed him. 249 00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:19,800 So, that was how the discovery was made. 250 00:11:19,900 --> 00:11:21,933 This was not an obvious place to look. 251 00:11:22,033 --> 00:11:23,700 It was very difficult to reach. 252 00:11:23,800 --> 00:11:27,866 And that created immediately a problem for our team. 253 00:11:27,966 --> 00:11:30,833 How are we gonna excavate in this place? 254 00:11:30,933 --> 00:11:33,666 Once they had brought the photos out, 255 00:11:33,766 --> 00:11:36,266 and they knocked on Lee's door late at night. 256 00:11:36,366 --> 00:11:38,600 And they said, "You're going to want to let us in." 257 00:11:38,700 --> 00:11:41,133 And he looked at the photos. He's like, "This is a hominin." 258 00:11:41,233 --> 00:11:42,366 And he sent me the photos. 259 00:11:42,466 --> 00:11:44,600 He sent it to a number of our senior colleagues 260 00:11:44,700 --> 00:11:46,433 who've been involved in the project before. 261 00:11:46,533 --> 00:11:48,400 He said, "What do you think of these?" 262 00:11:48,500 --> 00:11:50,833 It's a fossil hominin. There it is. 263 00:11:50,933 --> 00:11:53,300 It's a jaw bone laying on the floor of a chamber 264 00:11:53,400 --> 00:11:56,233 that clearly is a fossil hominin. 265 00:11:56,333 --> 00:11:58,766 Not a human, but some earlier form, 266 00:11:58,866 --> 00:12:02,566 and all the bones that you saw there to go with it. 267 00:12:02,666 --> 00:12:07,400 So, it was clear that we had to mobilize immediately. 268 00:12:07,500 --> 00:12:09,033 Well, Lee did exactly what you or I 269 00:12:09,133 --> 00:12:12,266 would have done in the same situation. 270 00:12:12,366 --> 00:12:13,833 He put a call on Facebook. 271 00:12:13,933 --> 00:12:16,000 (audience laughs) 272 00:12:16,100 --> 00:12:19,466 "Dear colleagues: I need the help of the whole community 273 00:12:19,566 --> 00:12:21,733 "and for you to reach out to as many 274 00:12:21,833 --> 00:12:23,466 "related professional groups as possible. 275 00:12:23,566 --> 00:12:25,200 "We need perhaps three or four individuals 276 00:12:25,300 --> 00:12:27,866 "with excellent archaeological, paleontological 277 00:12:27,966 --> 00:12:31,066 "and excavation skills for a short term project 278 00:12:31,166 --> 00:12:33,500 "that may last the month of November 279 00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:34,800 "if things go as planned. 280 00:12:34,900 --> 00:12:38,166 "The catch is this: the person must be skinny 281 00:12:38,266 --> 00:12:40,866 "and preferably small. 282 00:12:40,966 --> 00:12:42,633 "They must not be claustrophobic. 283 00:12:42,733 --> 00:12:45,133 "They must be fit, they should have some caving experience, 284 00:12:45,233 --> 00:12:48,500 "climbing experience would be a bonus." 285 00:12:48,600 --> 00:12:52,000 Within a few days Lee had received 57 applications 286 00:12:52,100 --> 00:12:54,633 from qualified people all around the world. 287 00:12:54,733 --> 00:12:57,566 And on a basis of looking at their records, 288 00:12:57,666 --> 00:13:00,033 interviewing them over Skype, 289 00:13:00,133 --> 00:13:03,300 he selected six outstanding young women 290 00:13:03,400 --> 00:13:06,766 to be the caving team that would be the people responsible 291 00:13:06,866 --> 00:13:09,833 for excavating in this very challenging place. 292 00:13:11,566 --> 00:13:16,333 And so, here's our team. 293 00:13:18,333 --> 00:13:19,866 And I'd like to point out 294 00:13:19,966 --> 00:13:22,000 second from the left there is Alia Gurtov, 295 00:13:22,100 --> 00:13:24,466 who's a University of Wisconsin graduate student, 296 00:13:24,566 --> 00:13:27,000 part of our anthropology program. 297 00:13:27,100 --> 00:13:30,000 On the far left is Becca Peixotto, 298 00:13:30,100 --> 00:13:31,533 who is involved in Outward Bound 299 00:13:31,633 --> 00:13:33,466 and a master's student in archeology, 300 00:13:33,566 --> 00:13:36,033 now a doctoral student at American University. 301 00:13:36,133 --> 00:13:38,633 Elen Feuerriegel is from Australia National University. 302 00:13:38,733 --> 00:13:40,600 Marina Elliott, in the right center, 303 00:13:40,700 --> 00:13:43,166 is now directing field exploration 304 00:13:43,266 --> 00:13:45,266 in the Cradle for the project. 305 00:13:45,366 --> 00:13:48,466 She was at Simon Fraser University in Canada. 306 00:13:48,566 --> 00:13:50,000 Lindsay Eaves. 307 00:13:50,100 --> 00:13:53,300 And Hannah Morris, now at the University of Georgia. 308 00:13:53,400 --> 00:13:56,900 So our caving underground team, outstanding young women. 309 00:13:57,000 --> 00:14:00,966 And over the course of less than three weeks underground, 310 00:14:01,066 --> 00:14:03,166 they excavated what would be 311 00:14:03,266 --> 00:14:05,800 the largest single fossil excavation 312 00:14:05,900 --> 00:14:09,133 ever conducted in Africa for hominin fossils. 313 00:14:10,533 --> 00:14:13,333 So, I'll show you some scenes of the underground work, 314 00:14:13,433 --> 00:14:15,133 it's a challenging situation. 315 00:14:15,233 --> 00:14:18,366 Everything that you see us working with underground 316 00:14:18,466 --> 00:14:21,466 had to be taken through those narrow passages. 317 00:14:21,566 --> 00:14:23,866 And that means the power, the lights, 318 00:14:23,966 --> 00:14:27,133 the computers, the scanners that we use. 319 00:14:28,466 --> 00:14:32,933 You see them working there in very closed off, 320 00:14:33,033 --> 00:14:37,000 sort of contorting sort of circumstances. 321 00:14:37,100 --> 00:14:41,733 It became really rapidly clear 322 00:14:41,833 --> 00:14:43,433 after very little excavation. 323 00:14:43,533 --> 00:14:45,933 This is me in the cave, right. 324 00:14:46,033 --> 00:14:49,100 And I put this up here to remind myself 325 00:14:49,200 --> 00:14:51,633 to tell you guys how worthless I actually am. 326 00:14:51,733 --> 00:14:53,333 (audience laughs) 327 00:14:53,433 --> 00:14:54,833 I don't fit. 328 00:14:54,933 --> 00:14:59,500 I will never set foot in the place where these fossils are. 329 00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:01,800 Lee will never set foot in that place. 330 00:15:01,900 --> 00:15:04,966 This is a very special chamber that you can only access 331 00:15:05,066 --> 00:15:07,533 with the right climbing and caving skills 332 00:15:07,633 --> 00:15:10,666 and the right physical makeup. 333 00:15:10,766 --> 00:15:13,633 And most people don't have it. 334 00:15:13,733 --> 00:15:16,033 It has been a great privilege to be involved 335 00:15:16,133 --> 00:15:19,333 in the project in the way that I have. 336 00:15:19,433 --> 00:15:21,466 And I like to tell people, especially kids, 337 00:15:21,566 --> 00:15:25,800 the cool thing about this is, I'm never gonna be there. 338 00:15:25,900 --> 00:15:30,966 And the only way that I know what I do about this place, 339 00:15:31,066 --> 00:15:33,266 and I know as much about this place 340 00:15:33,366 --> 00:15:35,733 as anyone else in the world right now, 341 00:15:35,833 --> 00:15:38,033 the only way that I know anything about it 342 00:15:38,133 --> 00:15:40,266 is by doing science on it. 343 00:15:40,366 --> 00:15:42,100 And that's pretty cool. 344 00:15:42,200 --> 00:15:43,600 We, throughout the project, 345 00:15:43,700 --> 00:15:46,166 compared what we were doing underground to astronauts. 346 00:15:46,266 --> 00:15:49,266 Because it is sort of like, I mean, they're not in space. 347 00:15:49,366 --> 00:15:50,900 But it's sort of like a spacewalk. 348 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:53,066 Because when they're working in there, 349 00:15:53,166 --> 00:15:54,533 we cannot get to them. 350 00:15:54,633 --> 00:15:57,600 It took a half an hour for our team to get from the surface 351 00:15:57,700 --> 00:15:59,566 into the chamber to be ready to work, 352 00:15:59,666 --> 00:16:02,300 and a half an hour for anything to come back out. 353 00:16:02,400 --> 00:16:04,700 So they're really quite remote. 354 00:16:04,800 --> 00:16:07,833 And my view from up here on the surface, 355 00:16:07,933 --> 00:16:11,200 from the tents above ground 356 00:16:11,300 --> 00:16:13,400 is entirely virtual. 357 00:16:13,500 --> 00:16:16,200 So here's Lee looking at one of our virtual viewpoints. 358 00:16:16,300 --> 00:16:19,833 We have cameras underground. 359 00:16:19,933 --> 00:16:21,766 And basically this is our view. 360 00:16:21,866 --> 00:16:24,400 We're watching the excavation in progress. 361 00:16:24,500 --> 00:16:27,866 And we can help to understand what's going on. 362 00:16:27,966 --> 00:16:30,700 We can give some expert guidance about what to do. 363 00:16:30,800 --> 00:16:33,300 But honestly, it's up to our team 364 00:16:33,400 --> 00:16:35,366 to do the best work that they can underground, 365 00:16:35,466 --> 00:16:38,400 under some very challenging circumstances. 366 00:16:38,500 --> 00:16:40,333 So, I mean, there is something mesmerizing 367 00:16:40,433 --> 00:16:41,800 about watching this happen, right? 368 00:16:41,900 --> 00:16:44,100 Because you see her working there 369 00:16:44,200 --> 00:16:45,700 with a little plastic spoon. 370 00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:48,133 Hannah's working in the background with a little brush. 371 00:16:48,233 --> 00:16:50,633 This is standard archeological equipment. 372 00:16:50,733 --> 00:16:54,633 And what a lot of people are surprised about 373 00:16:54,733 --> 00:16:56,933 with the Rising Star assemblage, 374 00:16:57,033 --> 00:17:01,500 is that unlike many fossil sites in southern Africa, 375 00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:05,400 our fossils are not embedded in a hard rock. 376 00:17:05,500 --> 00:17:07,633 Most fossil sites that we work with, 377 00:17:07,733 --> 00:17:10,800 the bones are imbedded in a rock that we call breccia, 378 00:17:10,900 --> 00:17:13,633 which is made up of bone, gravel, 379 00:17:13,733 --> 00:17:16,133 stuff from outside the cave that's fallen in 380 00:17:16,233 --> 00:17:21,333 and glued together with calcite, so that it's a hard cement. 381 00:17:21,433 --> 00:17:23,400 Our bone is in a soft sediment 382 00:17:23,500 --> 00:17:26,866 that's basically like a very fine-grained clay. 383 00:17:26,966 --> 00:17:31,100 And to work in it we just have to brush it away. 384 00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:35,166 The challenge is that our bones are incredible fragile. 385 00:17:35,266 --> 00:17:37,533 And I'll say some more words about that later. 386 00:17:37,633 --> 00:17:40,000 These bones are not hardened into rock. 387 00:17:40,100 --> 00:17:43,066 They are incredibly fragile. 388 00:17:43,166 --> 00:17:46,733 And so we come to challenges. 389 00:17:46,833 --> 00:17:51,900 Now, when we looked at the photographs from the cave, 390 00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:54,966 all of us pored over those photographs 391 00:17:55,066 --> 00:17:56,866 before we started excavation. 392 00:17:56,966 --> 00:17:58,266 And we said, 393 00:17:58,366 --> 00:18:00,433 "You know, I don't see anything here that's repeated. 394 00:18:00,533 --> 00:18:04,400 "This looks like it's gonna be one hominin skeleton. 395 00:18:04,500 --> 00:18:06,500 "I don't see any parts doubled here." 396 00:18:06,600 --> 00:18:09,300 And that would be an amazing discovery, right? 397 00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:12,000 Because when you think about the most famous discoveries 398 00:18:12,100 --> 00:18:15,133 in my field that have ever been made, things like Lucy, 399 00:18:15,233 --> 00:18:19,033 Lucy is a skeleton that's about 40% complete, 400 00:18:19,133 --> 00:18:21,466 and that is one of the most important single pieces 401 00:18:21,566 --> 00:18:25,233 of evidence of our evolutionary history. 402 00:18:25,333 --> 00:18:26,833 We expected that we were gonna find 403 00:18:26,933 --> 00:18:29,066 something about that scale. 404 00:18:29,166 --> 00:18:31,666 And, of course, that was gonna be tremendously important. 405 00:18:31,766 --> 00:18:34,366 We would have probably for the first time 406 00:18:34,466 --> 00:18:37,866 a skeleton associated from an individual 407 00:18:37,966 --> 00:18:39,400 of a South African species 408 00:18:39,500 --> 00:18:40,966 that we probably already knew about. 409 00:18:41,066 --> 00:18:43,166 Something like Australopithecus robustus, 410 00:18:43,266 --> 00:18:45,800 which is found only a half-mile away, 411 00:18:45,900 --> 00:18:47,500 at the site of Swartkrans. 412 00:18:47,600 --> 00:18:49,000 So, this seemed very likely. 413 00:18:49,100 --> 00:18:51,833 It was gonna tell us something that we already knew, 414 00:18:51,933 --> 00:18:53,700 but in much better detail 415 00:18:53,800 --> 00:18:56,233 and would give us a first ever look 416 00:18:56,333 --> 00:18:58,366 at the whole anatomy of something. 417 00:18:58,466 --> 00:19:01,966 And that was gonna be really exciting. 418 00:19:02,066 --> 00:19:05,900 That feeling lasted until the first day 419 00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:09,066 that we sent our team into the cave. 420 00:19:09,166 --> 00:19:11,333 Our first day, we got everything arranged. 421 00:19:11,433 --> 00:19:13,933 We set up everything do to a run into the cave 422 00:19:14,033 --> 00:19:16,100 to make sure that the equipment worked, 423 00:19:16,200 --> 00:19:18,200 to bring out one bone. 424 00:19:18,300 --> 00:19:21,066 We targeted that jawbone and we said, 425 00:19:21,166 --> 00:19:22,900 "Okay, let's make this happen." 426 00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:25,800 The jawbone came out and all of us 427 00:19:25,900 --> 00:19:28,033 who were on the senior part of the team, 428 00:19:28,133 --> 00:19:30,600 who knew the anatomy of all these fossil hominins 429 00:19:30,700 --> 00:19:33,133 like our own children, I've got to tell you, 430 00:19:33,233 --> 00:19:35,933 looked at the jawbone and we said, 431 00:19:36,033 --> 00:19:37,566 "That's not what I thought it was." 432 00:19:37,666 --> 00:19:39,633 (audience laughs) 433 00:19:39,733 --> 00:19:42,666 The next day our team went to work seriously 434 00:19:42,766 --> 00:19:44,833 bringing bone out of the surface of the chamber 435 00:19:44,933 --> 00:19:48,166 and brought up three pieces of right thigh bones, 436 00:19:48,266 --> 00:19:50,166 all of different right thigh bones. 437 00:19:50,266 --> 00:19:52,200 It was suddenly clear, immediately, 438 00:19:52,300 --> 00:19:54,233 that we were looking at multiple skeletons. 439 00:19:54,333 --> 00:19:56,733 This was not the kind of site we thought it was. 440 00:19:56,833 --> 00:19:58,500 Suddenly, this was vastly more important 441 00:19:58,600 --> 00:20:00,000 than we suspected it was. 442 00:20:00,100 --> 00:20:02,500 And so to give you an idea of what that was like-- 443 00:20:02,600 --> 00:20:04,433 - Today we're working on extracting a skull. 444 00:20:04,533 --> 00:20:06,233 - I'll show you a day at work. 445 00:20:06,333 --> 00:20:08,766 - It's looking to be fairly difficult at the moment 446 00:20:08,866 --> 00:20:10,766 because the skull is very pliable. 447 00:20:10,866 --> 00:20:13,633 It's very, very soft, 'cause it's quite damp down there. 448 00:20:13,733 --> 00:20:15,033 It's adding to the problem. 449 00:20:15,133 --> 00:20:17,666 So, I think, at the moment, our current strategy 450 00:20:17,766 --> 00:20:21,166 is to try and remove the skull in one giant block. 451 00:20:21,266 --> 00:20:23,100 As much as we can, anyway, 452 00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:25,100 because there's a lot of underlying bones. 453 00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:27,500 We've got two people working on different sides of the skull. 454 00:20:27,600 --> 00:20:28,966 So, I think you've got more eyes 455 00:20:29,066 --> 00:20:30,733 on what the actual skull is doing 456 00:20:30,833 --> 00:20:32,533 as we're trying to excavate it. 457 00:20:35,133 --> 00:20:38,733 - We are very hopeful that they can get it out in one piece. 458 00:20:38,833 --> 00:20:40,966 There's a good chance that they will. 459 00:20:41,066 --> 00:20:43,166 But if they cannot, at least we'll have it 460 00:20:43,266 --> 00:20:45,066 very carefully exposed and we'll be able 461 00:20:45,166 --> 00:20:47,400 to very carefully draw and indicate 462 00:20:47,500 --> 00:20:49,300 where exactly each piece came from. 463 00:20:49,400 --> 00:20:52,200 And then we'll deal with it in the science end. 464 00:20:52,300 --> 00:20:54,066 We can watch their work very carefully, 465 00:20:54,166 --> 00:20:55,600 and that's been very helpful 466 00:20:55,700 --> 00:20:57,966 for us to understand what they're seeing down there. 467 00:20:58,066 --> 00:21:01,500 The coolest thing is that I can't get down there, 468 00:21:01,600 --> 00:21:04,166 but it is as close as anyone can get 469 00:21:04,266 --> 00:21:06,300 to being there to help them. 470 00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:10,000 (machinery rumbling) 471 00:21:10,100 --> 00:21:11,666 - [Voiceover] Hi! 472 00:21:15,033 --> 00:21:19,300 - It's early evening, late, late afternoon. 473 00:21:20,433 --> 00:21:22,466 It's time for fossils to come up. 474 00:21:22,566 --> 00:21:24,800 - Well, they're supposedly bringing it out right now. 475 00:21:24,900 --> 00:21:28,266 - If it's lying on its side--(sound obscured by wind). 476 00:21:28,366 --> 00:21:30,166 It'd be really nice. 477 00:21:30,266 --> 00:21:31,833 - It feels completely surreal. 478 00:21:31,933 --> 00:21:33,900 This just doesn't happen. 479 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:35,733 They're coming to begin up. 480 00:21:35,833 --> 00:21:39,333 So, if somebody wants to do this, now is the moment. 481 00:21:39,433 --> 00:21:40,866 - [Voiceover] It's a big moment again! 482 00:21:40,966 --> 00:21:44,033 Every time it's a big moment. 483 00:21:44,133 --> 00:21:45,900 - Is that it? 484 00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:47,400 All right. 485 00:21:48,733 --> 00:21:50,833 - Look at that. 486 00:21:53,133 --> 00:21:54,433 Here it comes. 487 00:21:54,533 --> 00:21:56,233 - [Voiceover] There it is. 488 00:21:56,333 --> 00:21:58,400 - Let's go get it. 489 00:21:58,500 --> 00:22:02,600 (people laughing) 490 00:22:07,133 --> 00:22:10,933 - We got the large section of the cranium out. 491 00:22:11,033 --> 00:22:12,600 Glad to be done with that part. 492 00:22:12,700 --> 00:22:14,066 There's a lot more down there. 493 00:22:14,166 --> 00:22:15,766 There's a whole puzzle of long bones, 494 00:22:15,866 --> 00:22:18,533 and other bones, down, underneath where that was. 495 00:22:18,633 --> 00:22:19,866 About halfway through the time 496 00:22:19,966 --> 00:22:21,833 Marina and I were down there, it was pretty clear 497 00:22:21,933 --> 00:22:23,866 that we weren't gonna leave 'til it came out. 498 00:22:23,966 --> 00:22:25,666 There was no way we were stopping. 499 00:22:25,766 --> 00:22:27,500 The science tent closed a while ago, 500 00:22:27,600 --> 00:22:31,266 and they have something to keep 'em busy in the morning. 501 00:22:31,366 --> 00:22:34,333 So, that's good. (laughs) 502 00:22:35,833 --> 00:22:40,433 - We began digging at that spot because of that skull. 503 00:22:40,533 --> 00:22:41,966 We cleared the surface of the chamber. 504 00:22:42,066 --> 00:22:44,200 There were bones scattered on the surface as you saw. 505 00:22:44,300 --> 00:22:46,533 We were collecting those from the surface. 506 00:22:46,633 --> 00:22:49,833 But there was this skull protruding from the dirt. 507 00:22:49,933 --> 00:22:53,100 And so we began working on that to extract it. 508 00:22:53,200 --> 00:22:54,933 As our team began working around it, 509 00:22:55,033 --> 00:22:56,433 they discovered that the skull 510 00:22:56,533 --> 00:22:58,366 is actually sitting upon bones. 511 00:22:58,466 --> 00:23:02,200 And those bones are laid like pick-up sticks, 512 00:23:02,300 --> 00:23:06,066 one on top of the other, as far down as we could sense. 513 00:23:06,166 --> 00:23:08,766 And so this became a massive undertaking, 514 00:23:08,866 --> 00:23:11,100 just working to get that skull out. 515 00:23:11,200 --> 00:23:15,500 And once it was out, working on and gradually exposing 516 00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:18,566 more and more of this layer of bone 517 00:23:18,666 --> 00:23:21,100 that was making up the chamber. 518 00:23:21,200 --> 00:23:22,733 Every bone that we were finding, 519 00:23:22,833 --> 00:23:25,333 there was a bone of a fossil hominin. 520 00:23:25,433 --> 00:23:29,966 And they were in exceptional completeness in many cases. 521 00:23:30,066 --> 00:23:32,866 So suddenly this was an undertaking 522 00:23:32,966 --> 00:23:35,500 that we were working literally, 523 00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:38,100 probably centimeters a day, 524 00:23:38,200 --> 00:23:40,266 just clearing outward and making sure 525 00:23:40,366 --> 00:23:43,500 that we were very carefully exposing the bones, 526 00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:45,700 and then safely bringing them out. 527 00:23:45,800 --> 00:23:48,766 Everything that came out of the cave had to be marked, 528 00:23:48,866 --> 00:23:52,300 catalogued on the site, photographed, 529 00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:55,466 put into secure watertight bags, 530 00:23:55,566 --> 00:23:58,166 put into a waterproof padded caving bag 531 00:23:58,266 --> 00:24:01,200 and had to come out that narrow passageway. 532 00:24:01,300 --> 00:24:05,833 So, it was enormously stressful, let's say, 533 00:24:05,933 --> 00:24:08,333 that we had to do all of this to make sure 534 00:24:08,433 --> 00:24:09,933 that everything came out safely. 535 00:24:10,033 --> 00:24:12,500 But it was also enormously elating 536 00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:14,700 every time something would come out of the cave. 537 00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:17,300 Because every time we opened up one of these 538 00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:19,500 there was the possibility, and most, 539 00:24:19,600 --> 00:24:21,433 I mean, more than half the time, 540 00:24:21,533 --> 00:24:24,066 it was something that nobody had ever seen before. 541 00:24:24,166 --> 00:24:27,466 So, including bones that we almost never find 542 00:24:27,566 --> 00:24:29,166 at fossil sites, you know? 543 00:24:29,266 --> 00:24:31,433 So, I'll show you some of these bones in a bit. 544 00:24:31,533 --> 00:24:34,900 It is really quite a remarkable achievement. 545 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:38,733 But as a result, that situation of the fossils 546 00:24:38,833 --> 00:24:41,300 posed some very special challenges. 547 00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:46,266 For one thing, we worked for 21 days 548 00:24:46,366 --> 00:24:50,566 in this site, excavating an area that is smaller 549 00:24:50,666 --> 00:24:53,200 than the area of this table. 550 00:24:53,300 --> 00:24:56,000 Less than a square meter, and to a depth 551 00:24:56,100 --> 00:25:00,400 of less than a fourth of a square meter 552 00:25:00,500 --> 00:25:01,966 throughout most of it, 553 00:25:02,066 --> 00:25:03,933 less that a fourth of a meter, excuse me. 554 00:25:04,033 --> 00:25:07,366 So less than a foot deep, across less than a square yard. 555 00:25:07,466 --> 00:25:11,800 This is an amazing assemblage to come out of that space. 556 00:25:11,900 --> 00:25:16,733 Most of the bone assemblage in the cave is still there. 557 00:25:17,733 --> 00:25:21,533 We have excavated only a very tiny fraction of it. 558 00:25:21,633 --> 00:25:25,233 Also, the unique situation of the cave, 559 00:25:25,333 --> 00:25:26,733 the cramped situation, 560 00:25:26,833 --> 00:25:29,166 the inability to get straight sight lines 561 00:25:29,266 --> 00:25:30,866 and the dense packing of the bone, 562 00:25:30,966 --> 00:25:32,366 meant that we needed to study 563 00:25:32,466 --> 00:25:34,100 the spatial arrangement of this 564 00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:36,166 in a different way than we usually do. 565 00:25:36,266 --> 00:25:38,366 Usually, we can set up surveying equipment 566 00:25:38,466 --> 00:25:40,766 and very precisely get in the points of things 567 00:25:40,866 --> 00:25:42,866 by setting up a station. 568 00:25:42,966 --> 00:25:44,833 In our case, we couldn't do that. 569 00:25:44,933 --> 00:25:46,533 We needed to use a different approach. 570 00:25:46,633 --> 00:25:48,600 And the approach that we used was a scanning approach. 571 00:25:48,700 --> 00:25:51,333 Here you'll see the results of some of our first scans. 572 00:25:51,433 --> 00:25:54,100 We have a scanner that we can take the surface 573 00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:56,366 of the excavation at every point. 574 00:25:56,466 --> 00:25:58,400 And, in fact, after every bone removal, 575 00:25:58,500 --> 00:26:01,366 we take the surface of the excavation 576 00:26:01,466 --> 00:26:04,200 so that we have layer by layer, 577 00:26:04,300 --> 00:26:06,266 everything that we've done in the site 578 00:26:06,366 --> 00:26:09,200 can be reconstructed just back the way that we made it. 579 00:26:09,300 --> 00:26:11,800 So, it is really pushing the technology 580 00:26:11,900 --> 00:26:14,900 to enable us to reconstruct the arrangement of these things. 581 00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:17,200 We're already learning things about the spatial arrangement 582 00:26:17,300 --> 00:26:19,300 that we wouldn't have recovered otherwise. 583 00:26:22,933 --> 00:26:25,900 One of the other things that we were doing on the site 584 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:28,466 was we had our underground team. 585 00:26:28,566 --> 00:26:31,200 We had a team of more than 20 cavers 586 00:26:31,300 --> 00:26:33,233 that were involved in the excavation, 587 00:26:33,333 --> 00:26:36,233 running cabling, as you saw, keeping things safe. 588 00:26:36,333 --> 00:26:38,500 We had cavers in the cave at all times 589 00:26:38,600 --> 00:26:40,833 to make sure we could get things out of the cave, 590 00:26:40,933 --> 00:26:43,233 and to get people out if it was necessary. 591 00:26:43,333 --> 00:26:45,466 All of these folks were camping above ground. 592 00:26:45,566 --> 00:26:49,800 And we needed to, A, allow people to recognize 593 00:26:49,900 --> 00:26:51,733 the importance of what they were doing. 594 00:26:51,833 --> 00:26:54,400 So that if they were taking time away from their families, 595 00:26:54,500 --> 00:26:56,100 from their jobs, they could tell people, 596 00:26:56,200 --> 00:26:57,666 "Hey, check this out." 597 00:26:57,766 --> 00:26:59,166 So, part of the really great thing 598 00:26:59,266 --> 00:27:01,200 about our social media presence, 599 00:27:01,300 --> 00:27:03,600 tweeting from the site, doing Facebook posts, 600 00:27:03,700 --> 00:27:05,233 getting National Geographic video 601 00:27:05,333 --> 00:27:06,800 on YouTube from the site, 602 00:27:06,900 --> 00:27:10,366 and here our team Skyping out to schools from the site, 603 00:27:10,466 --> 00:27:13,133 we were Skyping to schools and countries all over the world, 604 00:27:13,233 --> 00:27:16,066 was that it enabled people to really get the sense 605 00:27:16,166 --> 00:27:18,333 of something really important that's happening. 606 00:27:18,433 --> 00:27:20,866 And it enabled us to share as much as possible 607 00:27:20,966 --> 00:27:22,933 the process of this with the public. 608 00:27:23,033 --> 00:27:26,633 So while there were aspects of it that we couldn't, 609 00:27:26,733 --> 00:27:29,133 we couldn't say because we didn't know. 610 00:27:29,233 --> 00:27:31,866 We hadn't studied the bones yet scientifically. 611 00:27:31,966 --> 00:27:34,733 We could still tell people what the process was. 612 00:27:34,833 --> 00:27:37,433 "Here's what we're doing. Here's what we're finding. 613 00:27:37,533 --> 00:27:40,166 "Yeah, we found another thigh bone out of the cave today. 614 00:27:40,266 --> 00:27:41,666 "We found another mandible. 615 00:27:41,766 --> 00:27:43,966 "And here's how we're doing it. 616 00:27:44,066 --> 00:27:45,800 "Here's how we'll study these things. 617 00:27:45,900 --> 00:27:47,700 "Here's what we don't know about it." 618 00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:49,833 That turned out to be a massive resource. 619 00:27:49,933 --> 00:27:53,666 We reached out, in one of our videos within 36 hours, 620 00:27:53,766 --> 00:27:56,566 it was seen by more than 300,000 people around the world. 621 00:27:56,666 --> 00:27:58,266 So, this was really something 622 00:27:58,366 --> 00:28:00,633 that people were following everywhere. 623 00:28:02,266 --> 00:28:04,100 The packing up on the site, 624 00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:08,033 it was clear that with this assemblage of fossils, 625 00:28:08,133 --> 00:28:12,033 at the end of November more than 1,200 fossils. 626 00:28:12,133 --> 00:28:14,233 After another week of excavation in March, 627 00:28:14,333 --> 00:28:16,433 which we came back to do some targeted work 628 00:28:16,533 --> 00:28:18,000 to bring out a couple of things 629 00:28:18,100 --> 00:28:20,633 that we knew were at the bottom of this pit, 630 00:28:20,733 --> 00:28:23,400 but we hadn't been able to get out safely before, 631 00:28:23,500 --> 00:28:26,000 we recovered another 300 bone pieces. 632 00:28:26,100 --> 00:28:29,933 So, we had in all more than 1,500 pieces of bone. 633 00:28:30,033 --> 00:28:32,500 We needed a very special way to study that. 634 00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:35,300 That by itself is the largest assemblage 635 00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:38,100 of fossil hominins ever discovered in Africa. 636 00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:39,533 There's only one site in the world 637 00:28:39,633 --> 00:28:41,833 that comes close to this, in terms of fossils. 638 00:28:41,933 --> 00:28:46,600 It's in Spain and it's an early form of our own genus, homo. 639 00:28:46,700 --> 00:28:52,066 So, what we did 640 00:28:52,166 --> 00:28:55,666 was to get the word out, again via Facebook, 641 00:28:55,766 --> 00:28:57,600 again via social networks. 642 00:28:57,700 --> 00:29:01,533 We need people to come and help us to analyze this material. 643 00:29:01,633 --> 00:29:04,400 If we just took the team of senior people 644 00:29:04,500 --> 00:29:07,533 who've been involved in the project for many years to come 645 00:29:07,633 --> 00:29:09,466 and describe stuff, it would take us 646 00:29:09,566 --> 00:29:11,466 years and years and years to do it. 647 00:29:11,566 --> 00:29:13,366 We didn't want to do it that way. 648 00:29:13,466 --> 00:29:16,366 But we also wanted to take advantage of the opportunity 649 00:29:16,466 --> 00:29:18,066 to broaden the involvement of this 650 00:29:18,166 --> 00:29:20,366 to a new generation of people. 651 00:29:20,466 --> 00:29:24,500 So, we got the word out that we were looking for scientists 652 00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:26,266 who were in their early career. 653 00:29:26,366 --> 00:29:28,433 People who were finishing their Ph.D., 654 00:29:28,533 --> 00:29:30,066 who had already done their research, 655 00:29:30,166 --> 00:29:31,666 who already had data sets, 656 00:29:31,766 --> 00:29:34,033 or who had recently finished their Ph.D. 657 00:29:34,133 --> 00:29:36,266 They're in their first position, a post-doc, 658 00:29:36,366 --> 00:29:40,566 an assistant professorship, and you've got data sets, 659 00:29:40,666 --> 00:29:43,233 "Please apply. "Tell us what you've got." 660 00:29:43,333 --> 00:29:45,433 And we have resources to bring people 661 00:29:45,533 --> 00:29:47,400 to work on the fossils. 662 00:29:47,500 --> 00:29:48,933 And that's exactly what we did. 663 00:29:49,033 --> 00:29:52,500 During June of 2014, May and June of 2014, 664 00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:54,000 we assembled more than 35 665 00:29:54,100 --> 00:29:56,800 early-career researchers in South Africa, 666 00:29:56,900 --> 00:30:00,200 funded by the South African National Research Foundation 667 00:30:00,300 --> 00:30:04,233 to do the primary description and analysis of the fossils. 668 00:30:04,333 --> 00:30:06,200 This was an amazing time, 669 00:30:06,300 --> 00:30:08,400 I think for all of them, certainly for me. 670 00:30:08,500 --> 00:30:11,100 Because, imagine, right? 671 00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:12,700 You've got people who've been dreaming 672 00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:14,666 about doing this sort of thing 673 00:30:14,766 --> 00:30:17,866 for at least what has been in their careers to date. 674 00:30:17,966 --> 00:30:21,866 And I'll never forget, taking the big, 675 00:30:21,966 --> 00:30:24,133 these things are in a vault like a bank vault, right? 676 00:30:24,233 --> 00:30:27,066 With a giant door, and taking the big key 677 00:30:27,166 --> 00:30:30,200 and opening the vault and doing the (door opening) 678 00:30:30,300 --> 00:30:33,200 and letting these folks into the fossil vault 679 00:30:33,300 --> 00:30:35,433 for the first time and seeing these fossils. 680 00:30:35,533 --> 00:30:37,166 It was really quite amazing. 681 00:30:37,266 --> 00:30:42,233 And on site here for more than five weeks, 682 00:30:42,333 --> 00:30:44,500 we put more than 10,000 person hours 683 00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:46,600 into the analysis of these fossils. 684 00:30:46,700 --> 00:30:48,466 We measured them in every way possible. 685 00:30:48,566 --> 00:30:51,866 We scanned them. We made surface models of them. 686 00:30:51,966 --> 00:30:55,700 We described them in relation to every fossil hominin 687 00:30:55,800 --> 00:30:57,766 that we had to compare them to. 688 00:30:57,866 --> 00:30:59,466 And that included not only originals 689 00:30:59,566 --> 00:31:02,833 that exist in South Africa, but high quality copies 690 00:31:02,933 --> 00:31:05,700 of things that we assembled by getting everybody 691 00:31:05,800 --> 00:31:07,833 around the world who had copies of things 692 00:31:07,933 --> 00:31:10,266 to send them to us so that we could compare them. 693 00:31:10,366 --> 00:31:14,566 So we really put together a scientific document 694 00:31:14,666 --> 00:31:16,933 that shows the anatomy of something 695 00:31:17,033 --> 00:31:20,933 that would turn out to be, after our analysis, 696 00:31:21,033 --> 00:31:25,000 a species that had been totally unknown to us before. 697 00:31:25,100 --> 00:31:28,733 A new species that we named Homo naledi. 698 00:31:28,833 --> 00:31:31,133 Naledi in the Sesotho language, 699 00:31:31,233 --> 00:31:32,866 which is one of the local languages 700 00:31:32,966 --> 00:31:35,500 spoken in this area, means star. 701 00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:38,866 And we named it star because of the Rising Star Cave 702 00:31:38,966 --> 00:31:40,200 that we found them in. 703 00:31:40,300 --> 00:31:42,366 And we named the chamber where we found the bones, 704 00:31:42,466 --> 00:31:44,266 the chamber that had not been on the map 705 00:31:44,366 --> 00:31:45,933 before our team went into it, 706 00:31:46,033 --> 00:31:48,000 we named that chamber the Dinaledi Chamber, 707 00:31:48,100 --> 00:31:49,900 which means the chamber of stars. 708 00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:55,033 So Homo naledi turned out to be 709 00:31:55,133 --> 00:31:58,233 similar in some ways to early members 710 00:31:58,333 --> 00:32:00,500 of our own genus, genus homo. 711 00:32:00,600 --> 00:32:03,533 But also substantially different from them 712 00:32:03,633 --> 00:32:05,766 in some really interesting ways. 713 00:32:05,866 --> 00:32:08,933 It gave us a picture of a species that we didn't expect. 714 00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:12,600 This is a virtual model made from 715 00:32:12,700 --> 00:32:15,600 some of the scans of the bones, 716 00:32:15,700 --> 00:32:17,100 some of the 3-D scans. 717 00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:19,166 So this is a 3-D manipulatable model. 718 00:32:19,266 --> 00:32:20,733 Here's is the bone layout, 719 00:32:20,833 --> 00:32:22,266 that shows you the multiple pieces 720 00:32:22,366 --> 00:32:24,366 of each part that we have preserved. 721 00:32:24,466 --> 00:32:27,066 For the first time, we were able to prepare a description 722 00:32:27,166 --> 00:32:31,933 of a new species of hominin based on the entire skeleton. 723 00:32:32,933 --> 00:32:35,866 Usually we find a jaw. And we compare that jaw. 724 00:32:35,966 --> 00:32:38,333 We pour over it, comparing it to everything we know about. 725 00:32:38,433 --> 00:32:40,566 And we find a few details that make it different, 726 00:32:40,666 --> 00:32:42,966 and we say, "Ah, This is something new!" 727 00:32:43,066 --> 00:32:47,433 In this case, we're able to compare the entire skeleton. 728 00:32:47,533 --> 00:32:50,800 And some things really are unique, we've never seen before. 729 00:32:50,900 --> 00:32:54,066 And some things overlap with other species. 730 00:32:54,166 --> 00:32:56,566 But what was key about this was that the things 731 00:32:56,666 --> 00:32:58,866 that overlap with one species, 732 00:32:58,966 --> 00:33:01,966 other features would overlap with something else. 733 00:33:02,066 --> 00:33:03,800 This was a new combination of things 734 00:33:03,900 --> 00:33:06,666 that we'd never seen before. 735 00:33:06,766 --> 00:33:09,466 So the skull is the most charismatic part. 736 00:33:09,566 --> 00:33:11,500 Everybody loves the skull. 737 00:33:11,600 --> 00:33:15,333 We have parts of at least five skulls, 738 00:33:15,433 --> 00:33:17,000 and very probably more. 739 00:33:17,100 --> 00:33:19,366 When I say at least five, what I mean is that 740 00:33:19,466 --> 00:33:21,233 I can show by laying them out 741 00:33:21,333 --> 00:33:24,500 that I have the same part repeated five times. 742 00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:27,066 So, we have parts of at least five skulls. 743 00:33:27,166 --> 00:33:30,066 We have parts of at least 15 individuals' dentitions. 744 00:33:30,166 --> 00:33:32,133 I'll show you teeth in a bit. 745 00:33:34,066 --> 00:33:37,033 Here's our team working on the teeth, 746 00:33:37,133 --> 00:33:39,466 or on the skull, these early-career people. 747 00:33:39,566 --> 00:33:41,200 My friend Davorka Radovcic on the right 748 00:33:41,300 --> 00:33:44,666 from the Natural History Museum of Croatia. 749 00:33:44,766 --> 00:33:48,433 And here's one of 750 00:33:48,533 --> 00:33:50,300 the more complete skulls. 751 00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:53,000 This is DH-3, Dinaledi Hominin 3. 752 00:33:53,100 --> 00:33:54,633 This is the skull of an old woman. 753 00:33:54,733 --> 00:33:56,566 And I'll show you that tooth set 754 00:33:56,666 --> 00:33:57,900 in comparison to the others. 755 00:33:58,000 --> 00:33:59,766 We know how old they are from their teeth, 756 00:33:59,866 --> 00:34:01,566 if they preserve them. 757 00:34:03,466 --> 00:34:05,566 Here's a couple more of the skulls. 758 00:34:06,633 --> 00:34:09,466 Here, I like to show how much we have, right? 759 00:34:09,566 --> 00:34:12,266 Here are all pieces of the brow ridge. 760 00:34:13,300 --> 00:34:15,866 Here are pieces of the temporal bone, 761 00:34:15,966 --> 00:34:17,400 just in front of the ear. 762 00:34:19,100 --> 00:34:21,100 Here are pieces of cheekbones. 763 00:34:22,566 --> 00:34:24,266 Here's the back of the skull. 764 00:34:25,700 --> 00:34:28,266 But, in addition to this, we can use our scans 765 00:34:28,366 --> 00:34:29,800 to virtually reconstruct things. 766 00:34:29,900 --> 00:34:31,633 And this gives us a lot of information 767 00:34:31,733 --> 00:34:33,533 about the structure of these things. 768 00:34:33,633 --> 00:34:35,733 So, here's DH-3 from the front. 769 00:34:35,833 --> 00:34:39,533 And here's a reconstruction of what its endocast was like. 770 00:34:39,633 --> 00:34:42,300 The inside of its brain, of its skull, 771 00:34:42,400 --> 00:34:45,866 gives us some indication of the outside of its brain. 772 00:34:45,966 --> 00:34:48,600 And that doesn't tell us a lot about the function of the brain, 773 00:34:48,700 --> 00:34:51,466 but it does give us a great idea of its size. 774 00:34:51,566 --> 00:34:53,966 These hominins had brains about a third 775 00:34:54,066 --> 00:34:56,266 the size of yours and mine. 776 00:34:56,366 --> 00:34:58,166 So, they're really quite small. 777 00:34:59,500 --> 00:35:02,866 And yet their skull is structured 778 00:35:02,966 --> 00:35:05,366 very much like homo erectus, 779 00:35:05,466 --> 00:35:07,800 a species that typically has brains 780 00:35:07,900 --> 00:35:09,866 about twice the size of this. 781 00:35:09,966 --> 00:35:14,900 So, in structure, it's like a more advanced-looking thing. 782 00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:18,966 In size, it's like a more primitive-looking thing. 783 00:35:20,733 --> 00:35:25,666 And just a comparison, here's teeth on the X-axis 784 00:35:25,766 --> 00:35:28,733 versus brain size on the Y-axis. 785 00:35:28,833 --> 00:35:31,066 Our evolution tends to follow a trend, 786 00:35:31,166 --> 00:35:34,300 where if you go from the lower right to the upper left, 787 00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:36,800 you're going actually forward in time. 788 00:35:36,900 --> 00:35:40,666 So, that Australopithecus, our primitive ancestors, 789 00:35:40,766 --> 00:35:43,500 had large teeth and small brains. 790 00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:46,066 And as we go up closer and closer to us, 791 00:35:46,166 --> 00:35:47,400 through our genus, homo, 792 00:35:47,500 --> 00:35:50,366 you get smaller teeth and bigger brains. 793 00:35:50,466 --> 00:35:53,166 So there's this sort of dual set of trends. 794 00:35:53,266 --> 00:35:55,100 Homo naledi that you see there, 795 00:35:55,200 --> 00:35:59,466 the white bar, is small teeth, small brain. 796 00:35:59,566 --> 00:36:01,833 And that's very atypical. 797 00:36:01,933 --> 00:36:04,466 That's not the kind of relation we expect to see. 798 00:36:05,933 --> 00:36:08,700 My friend John Gurche, who's, in my mind, 799 00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:11,433 the best art reconstructor of fossils, 800 00:36:11,533 --> 00:36:13,166 has done a reconstruction for us 801 00:36:13,266 --> 00:36:15,733 of what our most complete skull, DH-1, 802 00:36:15,833 --> 00:36:19,166 would have looked like in life. 803 00:36:19,266 --> 00:36:23,766 So, that bust is based on this skull. 804 00:36:28,533 --> 00:36:31,366 DH-2 is the skull that you saw them working on 805 00:36:31,466 --> 00:36:34,833 there in the cave that came up in, ultimately, a cereal bowl. 806 00:36:34,933 --> 00:36:36,266 That was the best thing for it. 807 00:36:36,366 --> 00:36:38,133 It laid upside-down in a cereal bowl 808 00:36:38,233 --> 00:36:40,100 and we put it inside of that lunch box 809 00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:42,066 and it came up through the cave. 810 00:36:42,166 --> 00:36:43,466 (audience laughs) 811 00:36:43,566 --> 00:36:46,766 And here's DH-1, the most complete of the skulls. 812 00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:53,900 Well, I'll say a few words about teeth 813 00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:56,033 because teeth we get a lot of information out of. 814 00:36:56,133 --> 00:36:58,433 And we're still getting information out of these teeth. 815 00:36:58,533 --> 00:37:00,166 We've done micro-CT scanning 816 00:37:00,266 --> 00:37:02,400 of all of the teeth in the collection. 817 00:37:02,500 --> 00:37:03,933 And so we're now studying 818 00:37:04,033 --> 00:37:05,666 the internal structure of the teeth. 819 00:37:05,766 --> 00:37:07,900 We will go on to study their development. 820 00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:11,566 So, we'll get some idea of how fast these individuals 821 00:37:11,666 --> 00:37:14,400 may have developed in their lives by studying that way. 822 00:37:14,500 --> 00:37:17,366 We will also study their isotopes to get some idea 823 00:37:17,466 --> 00:37:19,200 of what fraction of their diet 824 00:37:19,300 --> 00:37:21,200 may have come from different food sources. 825 00:37:21,300 --> 00:37:23,766 So, we'll get a lot of information from these teeth. 826 00:37:23,866 --> 00:37:27,166 But for me, somebody who's used to working on teeth 827 00:37:27,266 --> 00:37:29,333 from other collections that are large, 828 00:37:29,433 --> 00:37:30,766 the most exciting thing is, 829 00:37:30,866 --> 00:37:33,166 is that we can get a picture of what this group 830 00:37:33,266 --> 00:37:35,500 would've been like when it was alive. 831 00:37:35,600 --> 00:37:37,933 Because here is an array 832 00:37:38,033 --> 00:37:40,166 of the more complete of the dentitions. 833 00:37:40,266 --> 00:37:43,900 This is six dentitions representing a range of ages. 834 00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:45,766 So that, at the upper left, 835 00:37:45,866 --> 00:37:49,000 we have a nearly complete set of teeth, upper and lower. 836 00:37:49,100 --> 00:37:50,933 These are all baby teeth 837 00:37:51,033 --> 00:37:52,933 except for the very bottom ones there, 838 00:37:53,033 --> 00:37:54,533 in the upper-left set. 839 00:37:54,633 --> 00:37:56,733 Those are the first permanent molars. 840 00:37:56,833 --> 00:37:58,966 This is a set of teeth from a toddler 841 00:37:59,066 --> 00:38:00,500 around the age of two or three, 842 00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:02,566 if this was human terms, in terms of age. 843 00:38:02,666 --> 00:38:04,766 Probably they developed a little faster than we do. 844 00:38:04,866 --> 00:38:06,300 So, probably a little younger. 845 00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:09,100 At the bottom right, you have the oldest individual. 846 00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:12,400 That individual has almost worn her teeth completely out, 847 00:38:12,500 --> 00:38:15,000 so that they're worn all the way down to the roots. 848 00:38:15,100 --> 00:38:17,733 In fossil terms, that usually means that this individual 849 00:38:17,833 --> 00:38:20,666 is somewhere in their mid-30s. 850 00:38:20,766 --> 00:38:22,700 So, if you think old, old, old, 851 00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:25,733 that's old, old, old for these folks. 852 00:38:25,833 --> 00:38:27,166 And we have everything in between. 853 00:38:27,266 --> 00:38:28,433 We have children. 854 00:38:28,533 --> 00:38:30,000 We have at least eight children 855 00:38:30,100 --> 00:38:31,966 in the collection of a range of ages. 856 00:38:32,066 --> 00:38:34,300 We have infants, including one either newborn 857 00:38:34,400 --> 00:38:36,666 or near-term fetus. 858 00:38:36,766 --> 00:38:39,200 We have, we have young children. 859 00:38:39,300 --> 00:38:41,400 We have older children, adolescents. 860 00:38:41,500 --> 00:38:44,366 And we have young adults and one very old adult. 861 00:38:44,466 --> 00:38:48,866 So, this is a picture of the demography of a population. 862 00:38:48,966 --> 00:38:50,833 We've never had that before. 863 00:38:50,933 --> 00:38:52,733 Not from one site like this. 864 00:38:52,833 --> 00:38:55,833 And certainly not from as primitive a hominin as this is. 865 00:38:55,933 --> 00:38:57,633 So, this gives us unique information 866 00:38:57,733 --> 00:39:01,266 that we're only really starting to be able to work with. 867 00:39:01,366 --> 00:39:04,266 This is my favorite thing in the whole collection, 868 00:39:04,366 --> 00:39:06,800 because when you have a bunch of loose teeth 869 00:39:06,900 --> 00:39:09,300 that you've found in a cave, fitting them together 870 00:39:09,400 --> 00:39:11,100 is like the greatest puzzle ever. 871 00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:12,333 (audience laughs) 872 00:39:12,433 --> 00:39:13,800 Because there are biological clues 873 00:39:13,900 --> 00:39:15,800 about which teeth go together and how. 874 00:39:15,900 --> 00:39:17,333 And they leave traces on each other 875 00:39:17,433 --> 00:39:19,133 so that you can actually discover, 876 00:39:19,233 --> 00:39:21,366 "Ah! This tooth goes with this!" 877 00:39:21,466 --> 00:39:22,633 Last month, I was there 878 00:39:22,733 --> 00:39:25,200 and we had a tooth come out of the cave 879 00:39:25,300 --> 00:39:26,800 because we had to sample another tooth 880 00:39:26,900 --> 00:39:30,200 for some dating methods, and I said, 881 00:39:30,300 --> 00:39:32,633 "Ah! I know exactly where this goes! 882 00:39:32,733 --> 00:39:35,366 "I know whose tooth that is." 883 00:39:35,466 --> 00:39:36,366 The clues are there. 884 00:39:36,466 --> 00:39:37,866 So, this is my favorite, 885 00:39:37,966 --> 00:39:40,700 because it's this beautiful, beautiful condition dentition. 886 00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:43,100 This is the entire set of lower teeth 887 00:39:43,200 --> 00:39:45,200 and we have most of the upper teeth 888 00:39:45,300 --> 00:39:47,966 as well of this individual, of what in human terms 889 00:39:48,066 --> 00:39:50,666 would be about a nine- or ten-year-old. 890 00:39:54,433 --> 00:39:57,133 But we have not only the skull and the teeth, 891 00:39:57,233 --> 00:39:58,900 which we often have at other sites, 892 00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:00,566 we have the rest of the skeleton. 893 00:40:00,666 --> 00:40:02,600 And we have lots and lots and lots of parts 894 00:40:02,700 --> 00:40:04,200 of the rest of the skeleton, 895 00:40:04,300 --> 00:40:06,900 including complete articulated parts. 896 00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:11,966 So, this in the site is the right hand of an individual. 897 00:40:12,066 --> 00:40:14,633 The fingers are bent over like this 898 00:40:14,733 --> 00:40:16,966 so that you see the intermediate phalanges, 899 00:40:17,066 --> 00:40:19,766 these middle parts of the fingers bent over like that. 900 00:40:19,866 --> 00:40:22,166 This is what you call a death pose. 901 00:40:22,266 --> 00:40:25,133 Because here's the hand and it's gone like this. 902 00:40:25,233 --> 00:40:27,066 And all of the bones are there. 903 00:40:27,166 --> 00:40:29,033 The only bone lacking from this hand 904 00:40:29,133 --> 00:40:32,633 is this little one in the wrist, the pisiform bone. 905 00:40:32,733 --> 00:40:35,266 If you fall on the ice, don't do it, 906 00:40:35,366 --> 00:40:38,133 but if you do and you throw your wrist down like this, 907 00:40:38,233 --> 00:40:41,200 this one you might break or at least dislocate. 908 00:40:41,300 --> 00:40:42,666 So, it's there. 909 00:40:42,766 --> 00:40:44,033 We don't have that bone. 910 00:40:44,133 --> 00:40:45,400 We have every other bone 911 00:40:45,500 --> 00:40:48,266 from every other individual, it's amazing. 912 00:40:51,033 --> 00:40:55,233 Put this together and this hand, by itself, 913 00:40:55,333 --> 00:40:56,766 and we have parts of many hands. 914 00:40:56,866 --> 00:41:00,466 We have 150 hand and wrist elements in the collection. 915 00:41:00,566 --> 00:41:03,366 We have 190 teeth in the collection. 916 00:41:03,466 --> 00:41:04,800 It is an amazing sample. 917 00:41:04,900 --> 00:41:09,800 But this hand itself has this mixture of features 918 00:41:09,900 --> 00:41:12,266 that indicate different things. 919 00:41:12,366 --> 00:41:16,233 Its wrist and its palm is fundamentally 920 00:41:16,333 --> 00:41:19,600 a human wrist and palm. 921 00:41:19,700 --> 00:41:24,333 But its fingers are very curved 922 00:41:24,433 --> 00:41:26,566 relative to our fingers. 923 00:41:26,666 --> 00:41:29,466 Its fingertips, you can see them, the fingertips, 924 00:41:29,566 --> 00:41:31,433 they're broad at the end. 925 00:41:31,533 --> 00:41:33,333 A chimpanzee's fingertips or the fingertips 926 00:41:33,433 --> 00:41:34,933 of some of our early ancestors 927 00:41:35,033 --> 00:41:36,600 are very narrow at the end. 928 00:41:36,700 --> 00:41:40,900 That's because we use our fingertips to grip things strongly 929 00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:44,200 when we're making and using stone tools. 930 00:41:44,300 --> 00:41:45,966 You guys aren't making or using stone tools 931 00:41:46,066 --> 00:41:47,933 but your fingers are still well-made for it. 932 00:41:48,033 --> 00:41:49,366 And you grip strongly, powerfully 933 00:41:49,466 --> 00:41:52,366 through your fingertips because of it. 934 00:41:52,466 --> 00:41:56,633 These guys, we've never found a stone tool yet in our site. 935 00:41:56,733 --> 00:41:59,000 So, I can't say for sure that they were doing that, 936 00:41:59,100 --> 00:42:01,233 but their hands are sure made for it. 937 00:42:01,333 --> 00:42:03,300 But those curved fingers mean that their hands 938 00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:06,866 were also well-made for gripping onto things like this 939 00:42:06,966 --> 00:42:08,700 and suspending weight from them. 940 00:42:08,800 --> 00:42:11,100 Which tells us that they were probably climbing. 941 00:42:11,200 --> 00:42:13,666 Climbing a great deal, we think. 942 00:42:13,766 --> 00:42:15,466 But the one thing that's weird about this hand 943 00:42:15,566 --> 00:42:17,733 that we've never seen before anywhere 944 00:42:17,833 --> 00:42:20,800 is the bone that connects 945 00:42:20,900 --> 00:42:24,033 the thumb to the wrist. 946 00:42:24,133 --> 00:42:25,633 That bone in the palm of your hand 947 00:42:25,733 --> 00:42:29,000 that moves like this because it's a first metacarpal. 948 00:42:29,100 --> 00:42:31,233 And it's the one that roots your thumb there. 949 00:42:31,333 --> 00:42:33,566 You can see that this is a powerful thumb. 950 00:42:33,666 --> 00:42:36,166 But that bone in particular, 951 00:42:36,266 --> 00:42:39,633 the wrist end of that bone is at the bottom here. 952 00:42:39,733 --> 00:42:42,233 The thumb end of that is at the top. 953 00:42:42,333 --> 00:42:44,533 And this bone is totally wrong. 954 00:42:44,633 --> 00:42:47,366 Because you can see that it is thicker at the distal end, 955 00:42:47,466 --> 00:42:49,566 the thumb end, than it is at the wrist end. 956 00:42:49,666 --> 00:42:51,733 This is like a Popeye thumb, right? 957 00:42:51,833 --> 00:42:54,433 He's got those massive forearms and they're wrong. 958 00:42:54,533 --> 00:42:55,766 This is wrong. 959 00:42:55,866 --> 00:42:57,866 We've never seen anything else like this. 960 00:42:57,966 --> 00:42:59,333 But I love to show this slide, 961 00:42:59,433 --> 00:43:00,833 because sometimes people will say, 962 00:43:00,933 --> 00:43:03,200 "Well you found something unique, 963 00:43:03,300 --> 00:43:05,133 "that was probably just a weirdo. 964 00:43:05,233 --> 00:43:07,466 "That was probably just a strange individual." 965 00:43:07,566 --> 00:43:09,000 We've got seven of these! 966 00:43:09,100 --> 00:43:10,900 (audience laughs) 967 00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:13,200 They're all morphologically the same. 968 00:43:13,300 --> 00:43:14,900 They all have this strange character. 969 00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:17,100 And that tells us that this is actually 970 00:43:17,200 --> 00:43:19,600 a characteristic of Homo naledi. 971 00:43:19,700 --> 00:43:20,966 This is something about the way 972 00:43:21,066 --> 00:43:23,433 that it was adapting to its environment 973 00:43:23,533 --> 00:43:27,766 that gave it this unique morphology. 974 00:43:27,866 --> 00:43:30,800 You can see the curvature there of those fingers. 975 00:43:33,300 --> 00:43:37,266 And the forearms, the upper limbs let's say, 976 00:43:37,366 --> 00:43:40,233 are actually really slender. 977 00:43:40,333 --> 00:43:41,533 You look at that humorous. 978 00:43:41,633 --> 00:43:43,500 I've printed it here. 979 00:43:43,600 --> 00:43:46,500 This is a really slender bone. 980 00:43:46,600 --> 00:43:49,000 And when we look at the rest of the post, 981 00:43:49,100 --> 00:43:51,000 and we have juveniles of most of these as well. 982 00:43:51,100 --> 00:43:53,900 So, we can look at that developmental aspect as well. 983 00:43:54,000 --> 00:43:56,100 This is an adult humorous. 984 00:43:56,200 --> 00:43:57,566 This is a juvenile humorous. 985 00:43:57,666 --> 00:43:59,866 And on both cases the head of this, 986 00:43:59,966 --> 00:44:02,200 that connects to your shoulder is broken off. 987 00:44:02,300 --> 00:44:04,866 But the distal end is there here, 988 00:44:04,966 --> 00:44:07,266 and just short of there here. 989 00:44:07,366 --> 00:44:10,400 So, this is the bone of probably a six- or seven-year-old 990 00:44:10,500 --> 00:44:12,133 and this is the bone of an adult. 991 00:44:12,233 --> 00:44:16,900 These are little, slender, but long 992 00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:19,666 compared to how thin they are. 993 00:44:19,766 --> 00:44:21,833 And we're gonna see that throughout. 994 00:44:21,933 --> 00:44:24,166 The shoulders of Homo naledi, 995 00:44:24,266 --> 00:44:27,533 to make a long story short, are like this. 996 00:44:27,633 --> 00:44:31,233 They are oriented on the body of Homo naledi 997 00:44:31,333 --> 00:44:34,666 as if they're made to reach up and climb stuff. 998 00:44:34,766 --> 00:44:37,933 They are not oriented in the way that ours are, 999 00:44:38,033 --> 00:44:41,100 which is fundamentally with our scapulas down here 1000 00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:42,933 and to the side of our bodies, 1001 00:44:43,033 --> 00:44:44,566 well made for winding up 1002 00:44:44,666 --> 00:44:49,266 and throwing stuff or hitting stuff. 1003 00:44:50,400 --> 00:44:55,033 Homo naledis are made for climbing stuff. 1004 00:44:55,133 --> 00:44:58,433 And the clavicles match, these long, long collarbones. 1005 00:45:01,500 --> 00:45:03,133 We've got lots of feet. 1006 00:45:03,233 --> 00:45:05,833 My graduate student, my Ph.D. student I should say, 1007 00:45:05,933 --> 00:45:08,000 who now is an anatomy professor 1008 00:45:08,100 --> 00:45:10,533 at Lincoln-Memorial University, Zach Throckmorton, 1009 00:45:10,633 --> 00:45:13,100 came from UW and is one of the experts 1010 00:45:13,200 --> 00:45:15,233 working on the feet of Homo naledi. 1011 00:45:15,333 --> 00:45:17,200 We've got many partial feet, 1012 00:45:17,300 --> 00:45:20,933 many of them also found in articulation in the site. 1013 00:45:21,033 --> 00:45:25,200 The most complete one shows a foot which, in Zach's words, 1014 00:45:25,300 --> 00:45:26,866 right, 1015 00:45:26,966 --> 00:45:30,233 "This is as human as yours and mine." 1016 00:45:30,333 --> 00:45:32,733 It's got the arches that our feet have. 1017 00:45:32,833 --> 00:45:35,466 It's got the proportions of the toes that ours do. 1018 00:45:35,566 --> 00:45:38,900 The lateral toes there, we have most of the bones of those. 1019 00:45:39,000 --> 00:45:41,300 But it's really hard with little toe bones 1020 00:45:41,400 --> 00:45:43,133 to know for sure which is which. 1021 00:45:43,233 --> 00:45:46,233 So we don't show them in the diagram like this. 1022 00:45:46,333 --> 00:45:47,766 We've got them oriented there 1023 00:45:47,866 --> 00:45:49,733 on the cover of the "On Wisconsin." 1024 00:45:49,833 --> 00:45:53,300 So you can see all the toe bones, and one finger bone. 1025 00:45:53,400 --> 00:45:54,700 It's not my fault. 1026 00:45:54,800 --> 00:45:56,833 (audience laughs) 1027 00:45:56,933 --> 00:45:59,833 You see all the toe bones. 1028 00:45:59,933 --> 00:46:02,133 This is a toe that's made for upright walking, 1029 00:46:02,233 --> 00:46:06,766 bipedal striding, but in a essentially human-like way. 1030 00:46:06,866 --> 00:46:09,333 It is a human foot. 1031 00:46:09,433 --> 00:46:12,066 And that contrasts with things like the shoulder, 1032 00:46:12,166 --> 00:46:14,166 which is not like a human shoulder. 1033 00:46:16,733 --> 00:46:18,966 The lower limb, here's the tibia. 1034 00:46:19,066 --> 00:46:21,966 Likewise, long and slender, 1035 00:46:22,066 --> 00:46:25,266 and you start getting a picture for how big those guys are. 1036 00:46:25,366 --> 00:46:27,133 You can see that all these bones are slender. 1037 00:46:27,233 --> 00:46:28,700 All these bones are skinny. 1038 00:46:28,800 --> 00:46:30,166 Whatever height they are, 1039 00:46:30,266 --> 00:46:32,133 they seem like they're not very thick. 1040 00:46:32,233 --> 00:46:34,166 They're not massive for their height. 1041 00:46:34,266 --> 00:46:36,733 When we work with these numbers from the long bones, 1042 00:46:36,833 --> 00:46:38,933 we estimate that these guys stand 1043 00:46:39,033 --> 00:46:43,866 about four-and-a-half to five feet tall. 1044 00:46:43,966 --> 00:46:46,433 So they're human-sized. 1045 00:46:46,533 --> 00:46:48,000 They're not big-human-sized 1046 00:46:48,100 --> 00:46:51,233 but they're the size of small-bodied human populations. 1047 00:46:51,333 --> 00:46:54,233 People like Pygmies, like the Khoisan people 1048 00:46:54,333 --> 00:46:56,866 of South Africa, yeah, South Africa, 1049 00:46:56,966 --> 00:46:59,600 like the Andaman Islanders. 1050 00:46:59,700 --> 00:47:02,966 Folks around the world who are small-bodied populations, 1051 00:47:03,066 --> 00:47:06,266 Homo naledi is their size. 1052 00:47:06,366 --> 00:47:08,633 Again, juvenile tibiae. 1053 00:47:10,500 --> 00:47:14,666 We've got at least eight adult proximal femora. 1054 00:47:14,766 --> 00:47:16,933 I've got a bunch of them printed here as well. 1055 00:47:17,033 --> 00:47:19,900 The femur is different from the rest of the hindlimb. 1056 00:47:20,000 --> 00:47:21,400 The feet are human. 1057 00:47:21,500 --> 00:47:24,633 The tibiae are long and slender, but basically human. 1058 00:47:24,733 --> 00:47:27,300 The femur, across it, is mostly human. 1059 00:47:27,400 --> 00:47:29,200 But you get to that proximal femur, 1060 00:47:29,300 --> 00:47:30,966 and the neck of that proximal femur, 1061 00:47:31,066 --> 00:47:34,933 the part that connects to your hip joint, is long. 1062 00:47:35,033 --> 00:47:37,366 And I'll tell you exactly why that is... 1063 00:47:38,933 --> 00:47:40,700 when we look at the hip... 1064 00:47:45,700 --> 00:47:49,566 which is flared outwards like this. 1065 00:47:49,666 --> 00:47:53,300 And so if I take a piece of the hip, 1066 00:47:53,400 --> 00:47:55,466 and the hip is a tragedy. 1067 00:47:55,566 --> 00:47:57,566 My post-doc here, Caroline Van Sickle, 1068 00:47:57,666 --> 00:47:58,866 her specialty is the hip. 1069 00:47:58,966 --> 00:48:00,766 And she worked with us on the team 1070 00:48:00,866 --> 00:48:02,466 that was working on the hips. 1071 00:48:02,566 --> 00:48:04,433 Some of you might have gone to her lecture 1072 00:48:04,533 --> 00:48:06,366 when she did Wednesday Nite @ the Lab. 1073 00:48:06,466 --> 00:48:09,533 So, I always tell people that the hip is a tragedy. 1074 00:48:09,633 --> 00:48:11,566 And she's like, "Why is it tragic?" 1075 00:48:11,666 --> 00:48:13,200 Well, it's tragic because we have, 1076 00:48:13,300 --> 00:48:15,300 actually, a lot of broken pieces of it. 1077 00:48:15,400 --> 00:48:17,966 And we get a lot of anatomical clues from those. 1078 00:48:18,066 --> 00:48:19,800 And I've just sent her to Madrid 1079 00:48:19,900 --> 00:48:22,833 where she's working with specialists who've reconstructed 1080 00:48:22,933 --> 00:48:25,900 what this hip might've looked like from the pieces. 1081 00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:28,733 But the first clue that we get 1082 00:48:28,833 --> 00:48:31,366 is that when we orient this properly, 1083 00:48:31,466 --> 00:48:34,133 you see that is just flares outwards like this 1084 00:48:34,233 --> 00:48:39,366 and the femur necks are long to match. 1085 00:48:39,466 --> 00:48:41,733 This is a dynamic that we see in some 1086 00:48:41,833 --> 00:48:45,133 of the earliest bipedal hominins, the australopiths. 1087 00:48:45,233 --> 00:48:47,933 It's a dynamic that shows that they have great force 1088 00:48:48,033 --> 00:48:49,666 to keep their bodies upright. 1089 00:48:49,766 --> 00:48:51,666 They have very good leverage for that. 1090 00:48:51,766 --> 00:48:55,333 And they have a lot of hip swing. 1091 00:48:55,433 --> 00:48:58,900 But it's not very human-like. 1092 00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:01,166 We have a much more vertically-oriented hip. 1093 00:49:01,266 --> 00:49:02,766 And ours are much better made 1094 00:49:02,866 --> 00:49:05,200 for long-distance walking and running. 1095 00:49:05,300 --> 00:49:08,733 So, this is a very primitive confirmation 1096 00:49:08,833 --> 00:49:11,733 to go with that very human-like foot. 1097 00:49:11,833 --> 00:49:13,666 And that's a bit of a puzzle for us. 1098 00:49:13,766 --> 00:49:15,633 We haven't worked it out yet. 1099 00:49:18,933 --> 00:49:23,300 So, when you look across the whole body, Homo naledi, 1100 00:49:23,400 --> 00:49:25,600 and this is John's drawing of this, 1101 00:49:25,700 --> 00:49:28,200 and I think he's done just a great job. 1102 00:49:28,300 --> 00:49:31,233 On the very left, we have Lucy. 1103 00:49:31,333 --> 00:49:33,933 Her species is Australopithecus afarensis. 1104 00:49:34,033 --> 00:49:36,600 It's one of the most primitive bipedal hominins. 1105 00:49:36,700 --> 00:49:37,933 Afarensis is small. 1106 00:49:38,033 --> 00:49:41,466 Lucy stood just a bit over three feet tall. 1107 00:49:41,566 --> 00:49:44,300 Next to her is the most complete skeleton 1108 00:49:44,400 --> 00:49:46,500 of Homo erectus, reconstructed. 1109 00:49:46,600 --> 00:49:48,800 This is a skeleton from Kenya. 1110 00:49:48,900 --> 00:49:50,533 It's called the stripling youth, 1111 00:49:50,633 --> 00:49:52,433 or the boy from Nariokotome. 1112 00:49:52,533 --> 00:49:55,733 And people always remember how to say Nariokotome 1113 00:49:55,833 --> 00:49:57,933 because it's pronounced like frontal lobotomy. 1114 00:49:58,033 --> 00:50:00,466 (audience laughs) 1115 00:50:00,566 --> 00:50:02,500 I will never forget when I was taught that. 1116 00:50:02,600 --> 00:50:05,766 So, now I'm transmitting it. 1117 00:50:05,866 --> 00:50:08,666 And on the right you see Homo naledi. 1118 00:50:08,766 --> 00:50:10,766 Homo naledi's in between these two 1119 00:50:10,866 --> 00:50:14,100 in stature, the size of a small-bodied human. 1120 00:50:14,200 --> 00:50:16,800 But I think John has done the shoulders especially well. 1121 00:50:16,900 --> 00:50:18,433 He's done the thinness well. 1122 00:50:18,533 --> 00:50:20,100 He's done the stance, I think, well. 1123 00:50:20,200 --> 00:50:22,500 It is a very human-like stance. 1124 00:50:22,600 --> 00:50:26,066 But it doesn't look quite like us. 1125 00:50:26,166 --> 00:50:29,266 And that's what you get with Homo naledi. 1126 00:50:29,366 --> 00:50:33,800 We do not know how old the fossil assemblage is. 1127 00:50:35,500 --> 00:50:39,200 We have excavated it from a very uncommon setting. 1128 00:50:39,300 --> 00:50:42,300 It does not have the bone embedded in rock. 1129 00:50:42,400 --> 00:50:45,633 We do not have as clear of indicators 1130 00:50:45,733 --> 00:50:47,900 of the antiquity of the bone. 1131 00:50:48,000 --> 00:50:50,366 And you might say, "Well, the bone's probably young." 1132 00:50:50,466 --> 00:50:51,800 And that's a possibility. 1133 00:50:51,900 --> 00:50:53,733 This bone could actually be 1134 00:50:53,833 --> 00:50:55,833 relatively young in fossil terms. 1135 00:50:55,933 --> 00:50:57,566 That would still be tens of thousands, 1136 00:50:57,666 --> 00:50:59,400 hundreds of thousands of years old, 1137 00:50:59,500 --> 00:51:01,300 but it might be very different in age 1138 00:51:01,400 --> 00:51:03,366 from other things in the area. 1139 00:51:03,466 --> 00:51:06,033 But I have worked on hominin collections, 1140 00:51:06,133 --> 00:51:08,800 Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia for instance, 1141 00:51:08,900 --> 00:51:11,233 where the bone is two million years old nearly, 1142 00:51:11,333 --> 00:51:15,233 but is also very fragile and not embedded in hard rock. 1143 00:51:15,333 --> 00:51:16,833 So we don't know for sure 1144 00:51:16,933 --> 00:51:19,166 the age of this from the condition. 1145 00:51:19,266 --> 00:51:21,800 We are working in the site to discover 1146 00:51:21,900 --> 00:51:24,733 the age of the fossils by bracketing them 1147 00:51:24,833 --> 00:51:26,766 with flow stone deposits. 1148 00:51:26,866 --> 00:51:30,266 We have flowstones that are above our fossil deposit. 1149 00:51:30,366 --> 00:51:31,566 We're working to discover 1150 00:51:31,666 --> 00:51:33,833 what is at the bottom of the fossil deposit. 1151 00:51:33,933 --> 00:51:35,733 And the density of bone means that 1152 00:51:35,833 --> 00:51:38,433 we don't just dig right through with a drill, right? 1153 00:51:38,533 --> 00:51:40,533 So we actually have to be very careful about this. 1154 00:51:40,633 --> 00:51:43,133 And that is holding us up on determining a date. 1155 00:51:43,233 --> 00:51:46,066 But you can see the possibilities. 1156 00:51:46,166 --> 00:51:49,100 It is a very primitive member of our genus. 1157 00:51:49,200 --> 00:51:51,600 It's like maybe the earliest examples 1158 00:51:51,700 --> 00:51:54,266 of Homo erectus with a smaller brain. 1159 00:51:54,366 --> 00:51:57,366 It's like Homo habilis, a very primitive member 1160 00:51:57,466 --> 00:52:00,366 of our genus, with a smaller brain 1161 00:52:00,466 --> 00:52:02,500 but with more advanced aspects 1162 00:52:02,600 --> 00:52:04,600 of the feet and hands, for instance. 1163 00:52:04,700 --> 00:52:08,866 So, it looks like it's rooted in our family tree 1164 00:52:08,966 --> 00:52:11,300 around the time that our genus originated, 1165 00:52:11,400 --> 00:52:13,866 maybe two to two-and-a-half million years ago, 1166 00:52:13,966 --> 00:52:15,966 possibly earlier. 1167 00:52:16,066 --> 00:52:19,333 But the fossils may be much younger than that. 1168 00:52:19,433 --> 00:52:20,666 They could be that age, right? 1169 00:52:20,766 --> 00:52:23,166 It could be, "Wow! This is our ancestor." 1170 00:52:23,266 --> 00:52:26,666 Or it could be that the fossils have survived 1171 00:52:26,766 --> 00:52:30,900 alongside other species that evolved more similar to us. 1172 00:52:31,000 --> 00:52:32,566 And we don't know. 1173 00:52:32,666 --> 00:52:34,400 So, when we draw the family tree, 1174 00:52:34,500 --> 00:52:36,600 you can say that homo here is the bottom branch, 1175 00:52:36,700 --> 00:52:39,166 and these orange species are different kinds of homo. 1176 00:52:39,266 --> 00:52:40,900 Homo naledi is this green one. 1177 00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:42,333 And maybe it's very recent. 1178 00:52:42,433 --> 00:52:44,733 Maybe it lived alongside of even modern humans. 1179 00:52:44,833 --> 00:52:46,466 That's a possibility. 1180 00:52:46,566 --> 00:52:48,766 Maybe it's the age we think it is. 1181 00:52:48,866 --> 00:52:50,666 It's even a possibility it's much older 1182 00:52:50,766 --> 00:52:52,233 than it sort of ought to be. 1183 00:52:52,333 --> 00:52:54,633 In which case it would establish an earlier date 1184 00:52:54,733 --> 00:52:57,333 for the origin of our genus than we thought. 1185 00:52:57,433 --> 00:53:00,266 So, discovering the date takes on some primary importance 1186 00:53:00,366 --> 00:53:03,500 in understanding what happened to lead 1187 00:53:03,600 --> 00:53:07,300 to the evolution of humans and other species of homo. 1188 00:53:09,066 --> 00:53:11,166 Well as Tom indicated, 1189 00:53:11,266 --> 00:53:14,066 we had a lot of news with this discovery. 1190 00:53:14,166 --> 00:53:17,533 This is my photo on the New York Times, just wonderful. 1191 00:53:17,633 --> 00:53:20,933 The international attention to this has been just enormous. 1192 00:53:21,033 --> 00:53:23,166 It has been really, really great to see 1193 00:53:23,266 --> 00:53:26,400 that our science has gotten this kind of attention. 1194 00:53:26,500 --> 00:53:27,866 This is the skull right? 1195 00:53:27,966 --> 00:53:29,400 I'm the one who made away 1196 00:53:29,500 --> 00:53:31,066 with the one the vice president kissed. 1197 00:53:31,166 --> 00:53:33,600 This is the vice president of South Africa 1198 00:53:33,700 --> 00:53:35,133 who appeared at our announcement 1199 00:53:35,233 --> 00:53:37,733 and was really nice about this. 1200 00:53:37,833 --> 00:53:42,466 I just, it is so neat to be in South Africa, 1201 00:53:42,566 --> 00:53:44,933 in many ways still a developing country, 1202 00:53:45,033 --> 00:53:47,500 still investing in its strategic areas 1203 00:53:47,600 --> 00:53:49,000 of scientific advantage. 1204 00:53:49,100 --> 00:53:51,200 Fossils, obviously, a huge area 1205 00:53:51,300 --> 00:53:53,233 where they are pushing their science 1206 00:53:53,333 --> 00:53:55,733 and to have, at the highest levels of government 1207 00:53:55,833 --> 00:53:58,666 that recognize the importance of this. 1208 00:53:58,766 --> 00:54:03,533 At our announcement, the vice president said, 1209 00:54:03,633 --> 00:54:06,066 "This work demonstrates the scientific basis 1210 00:54:06,166 --> 00:54:09,566 "for a common humanity." 1211 00:54:09,666 --> 00:54:11,400 And that is what it does. 1212 00:54:11,500 --> 00:54:14,633 This is showing our ancestry. 1213 00:54:14,733 --> 00:54:17,333 The things that tie us together, historically, 1214 00:54:17,433 --> 00:54:21,133 are things that came from these ancient species. 1215 00:54:21,233 --> 00:54:22,866 And discovering how they lived 1216 00:54:22,966 --> 00:54:25,966 is telling us about that shared history 1217 00:54:26,066 --> 00:54:28,066 that every human around the world has, 1218 00:54:28,166 --> 00:54:30,600 especially in countries like South Africa 1219 00:54:30,700 --> 00:54:33,233 where you have this huge human diversity 1220 00:54:33,333 --> 00:54:35,466 that has had a history of great troubles. 1221 00:54:35,566 --> 00:54:37,666 Being able to contribute on the scientific side 1222 00:54:37,766 --> 00:54:41,400 to showing the common humanity is incredibly important. 1223 00:54:42,433 --> 00:54:44,466 Of course, any time there's a great discovery, 1224 00:54:44,566 --> 00:54:46,400 you get in the comics. 1225 00:54:46,500 --> 00:54:50,500 (audience laughs) 1226 00:54:50,600 --> 00:54:51,866 "Fossils of New Human Species 1227 00:54:51,966 --> 00:54:53,633 "Found in African Cave" is the headline. 1228 00:54:53,733 --> 00:54:55,333 "Did we discover an extinct caveman too? 1229 00:54:55,433 --> 00:54:56,833 "Not quite." 1230 00:54:56,933 --> 00:54:59,766 He's got the artifacts of our political campaigns, 1231 00:54:59,866 --> 00:55:03,333 Trump has a club, Donald was here. 1232 00:55:05,400 --> 00:55:07,266 But in South Africa, this took on 1233 00:55:07,366 --> 00:55:09,533 a really, sort of more spirited view. 1234 00:55:09,633 --> 00:55:11,833 This was when the Rugby World Cup was happening. 1235 00:55:11,933 --> 00:55:13,766 And as you can see here Homo naledi 1236 00:55:13,866 --> 00:55:16,433 was ready to join the team, the Springboks. 1237 00:55:16,533 --> 00:55:20,966 If you guys have seen that movie with the Springboks. 1238 00:55:21,066 --> 00:55:23,633 It really is like that there. They're crazy for their rugby. 1239 00:55:23,733 --> 00:55:25,033 And, it's neat to be, 1240 00:55:25,133 --> 00:55:26,833 "This is the most experienced Bok Team ever, 1241 00:55:26,933 --> 00:55:28,333 "with a million years between them." 1242 00:55:28,433 --> 00:55:32,100 (audience laughs) 1243 00:55:32,200 --> 00:55:33,800 But when it comes down to it, 1244 00:55:33,900 --> 00:55:37,566 we have just an enormous amount of work left to do. 1245 00:55:37,666 --> 00:55:39,133 We've done as much, I think, 1246 00:55:39,233 --> 00:55:42,800 as possible to get this out to the public. 1247 00:55:42,900 --> 00:55:45,433 Not only through our participation in social media, 1248 00:55:45,533 --> 00:55:48,100 but also here we put the fossils on exhibit. 1249 00:55:48,200 --> 00:55:50,200 For the first time ever, a new fossil discovery 1250 00:55:50,300 --> 00:55:52,933 of hominins on exhibit for the public. 1251 00:55:53,033 --> 00:55:56,300 And record-breaking 10 times the ordinary visitation 1252 00:55:56,400 --> 00:55:58,766 to the visitor center of the World Heritage Site 1253 00:55:58,866 --> 00:56:00,166 to see these fossils. 1254 00:56:00,266 --> 00:56:01,900 As you can see, school groups, 1255 00:56:02,000 --> 00:56:04,200 people of all ages coming out. 1256 00:56:04,300 --> 00:56:05,533 It was just a unique thing. 1257 00:56:05,633 --> 00:56:08,966 When they left they put on a farewell concert 1258 00:56:09,066 --> 00:56:10,700 and they had some of the greatest acts 1259 00:56:10,800 --> 00:56:14,500 in South Africa on stage to salute Homo naledi. 1260 00:56:14,600 --> 00:56:16,733 It was really something. 1261 00:56:16,833 --> 00:56:19,966 So, that was really special. 1262 00:56:20,066 --> 00:56:22,300 But we've also made great strides 1263 00:56:22,400 --> 00:56:25,566 in sharing the scientific results more broadly. 1264 00:56:25,666 --> 00:56:28,200 In paleoanthropology it is... 1265 00:56:28,300 --> 00:56:29,733 From my point of view, 1266 00:56:29,833 --> 00:56:31,700 I've been in the field for 20 years, 1267 00:56:31,800 --> 00:56:33,400 from my point of view, 1268 00:56:33,500 --> 00:56:37,100 sad that our students cannot handle 1269 00:56:37,200 --> 00:56:39,533 fossil casts from some of the most famous 1270 00:56:39,633 --> 00:56:41,133 fossils in the world. 1271 00:56:41,233 --> 00:56:43,800 You can't get a cast of Lucy now. 1272 00:56:43,900 --> 00:56:46,066 You cannot get copies of these fossils 1273 00:56:46,166 --> 00:56:48,066 to show to your students. 1274 00:56:48,166 --> 00:56:49,533 We want to change that. 1275 00:56:49,633 --> 00:56:51,033 We made our priority to share 1276 00:56:51,133 --> 00:56:53,166 this information as broadly as possible. 1277 00:56:53,266 --> 00:56:57,133 We published our work in eLife, an open access journal. 1278 00:56:57,233 --> 00:57:00,966 And we put our fossil scans on the web 1279 00:57:01,066 --> 00:57:03,033 so that anyone can download them. 1280 00:57:03,133 --> 00:57:05,766 We, to date, have had nearly 10,000 downloads 1281 00:57:05,866 --> 00:57:07,300 of these from around the world. 1282 00:57:07,400 --> 00:57:10,000 And people are using those to print out fossils everywhere. 1283 00:57:10,100 --> 00:57:11,600 I show up places to give a talk 1284 00:57:11,700 --> 00:57:13,400 and they'll say, "Here's our naledi!" 1285 00:57:13,500 --> 00:57:15,500 It's amazing! (audience laughs) 1286 00:57:15,600 --> 00:57:17,600 I've been printing them in my lab like crazy, right? 1287 00:57:17,700 --> 00:57:20,700 So, I've got fossils to bring in. 1288 00:57:20,800 --> 00:57:23,000 But for us the important thing 1289 00:57:23,100 --> 00:57:26,566 is that this is a South African discovery. 1290 00:57:26,666 --> 00:57:29,866 And so the chancellor of Wits University, 1291 00:57:29,966 --> 00:57:32,900 the university that hosts our work and hosts the fossils, 1292 00:57:33,000 --> 00:57:34,500 at our announcement said these words. 1293 00:57:34,600 --> 00:57:36,033 And I think they're really important. 1294 00:57:36,133 --> 00:57:40,100 Because they show the way the world of science is changing. 1295 00:57:40,200 --> 00:57:42,666 "We often talk about science as having no boundaries, 1296 00:57:42,766 --> 00:57:44,400 "but in our world scientific knowledge 1297 00:57:44,500 --> 00:57:47,533 "has become commodified, and too often, 1298 00:57:47,633 --> 00:57:49,900 "what should be the bequest of the world, 1299 00:57:50,000 --> 00:57:51,533 "the bequest of a common humanity, 1300 00:57:51,633 --> 00:57:54,566 "is locked up under pay walls that postgraduate students 1301 00:57:54,666 --> 00:57:56,600 "and researchers cannot get access to." 1302 00:57:56,700 --> 00:57:58,066 We're at a tremendous advantage 1303 00:57:58,166 --> 00:57:59,766 here at the University of Wisconsin 1304 00:57:59,866 --> 00:58:01,933 because almost anything that I want to read, 1305 00:58:02,033 --> 00:58:03,633 the library will get for me. 1306 00:58:03,733 --> 00:58:06,233 This is not the case in most of the world. 1307 00:58:06,333 --> 00:58:08,400 It is not the case in South Africa. 1308 00:58:08,500 --> 00:58:10,366 And so to be able to do this work 1309 00:58:10,466 --> 00:58:13,000 in South Africa and give it to the world. 1310 00:58:13,100 --> 00:58:15,566 As he said, "What we did when we made this discovery, 1311 00:58:15,666 --> 00:58:17,433 "was we put the cameras in the cave, 1312 00:58:17,533 --> 00:58:18,933 "we streamed it live. 1313 00:58:19,033 --> 00:58:21,600 "We partnered with eLife, an open access journal, 1314 00:58:21,700 --> 00:58:23,200 "to make sure that the discovery 1315 00:58:23,300 --> 00:58:25,500 "was available to all of humanity. 1316 00:58:25,600 --> 00:58:27,000 "And what we did in that practice, 1317 00:58:27,100 --> 00:58:30,733 "is create the first elements of a common global academy. 1318 00:58:30,833 --> 00:58:33,100 "We're not simply going to be beneficiaries 1319 00:58:33,200 --> 00:58:35,366 "of open access, but we are going to be 1320 00:58:35,466 --> 00:58:37,966 "contributors to open access." 1321 00:58:38,066 --> 00:58:40,466 This isn't Africa coming with its hands out 1322 00:58:40,566 --> 00:58:42,833 looking for people to give stuff. 1323 00:58:42,933 --> 00:58:45,933 This is Africa providing the best that it has 1324 00:58:46,033 --> 00:58:47,800 to the rest of the world as a bequest 1325 00:58:47,900 --> 00:58:49,900 of a common humanity. 1326 00:58:50,000 --> 00:58:52,800 And so, to be a part of that project, with that priority, 1327 00:58:52,900 --> 00:58:55,300 for me, is tremendously important. 1328 00:58:57,500 --> 00:59:01,533 You guys are gonna want to know, how did the bodies get in there? 1329 00:59:04,400 --> 00:59:07,500 We have a very unique situation. 1330 00:59:07,600 --> 00:59:11,866 A situation in which we have no other 1331 00:59:11,966 --> 00:59:16,266 medium or large mammals other than hominins. 1332 00:59:16,366 --> 00:59:19,433 Aside from the hominin bones, 1333 00:59:19,533 --> 00:59:24,866 we have six pieces of a bird's leg 1334 00:59:24,966 --> 00:59:29,733 and some teeth and a couple of other bones from mice. 1335 00:59:29,833 --> 00:59:32,100 And those mice teeth and bones, we think, 1336 00:59:32,200 --> 00:59:34,666 we're pretty confident, were there before our hominins. 1337 00:59:34,766 --> 00:59:36,666 They're in a different deposit than our hominins. 1338 00:59:36,766 --> 00:59:39,233 Our hominins are there in what look like 1339 00:59:39,333 --> 00:59:42,700 at least two different depositional events. 1340 00:59:42,800 --> 00:59:44,633 The bird we think probably came in later, 1341 00:59:44,733 --> 00:59:46,100 'cause it's on the surface, 1342 00:59:46,200 --> 00:59:48,233 it's preserved differently from the hominin bone. 1343 00:59:48,333 --> 00:59:50,433 That's what we got. 1344 00:59:50,533 --> 00:59:52,733 This chamber is where it is. 1345 00:59:52,833 --> 00:59:54,266 It is remote. 1346 00:59:54,366 --> 00:59:57,533 It's, for our team, very difficult to reach. 1347 00:59:57,633 --> 00:59:59,033 We do not believe it would've been 1348 00:59:59,133 --> 01:00:01,633 as difficult to reach in the past. 1349 01:00:01,733 --> 01:00:02,966 Caves change over time. 1350 01:00:03,066 --> 01:00:04,933 And we think the geology of this cave 1351 01:00:05,033 --> 01:00:07,433 probably made it easier to access in the past. 1352 01:00:07,533 --> 01:00:10,233 But we can tell from the sediments in this chamber 1353 01:00:10,333 --> 01:00:13,300 that this chamber was never open to the surface. 1354 01:00:13,400 --> 01:00:15,800 These hominins didn't fall in. 1355 01:00:15,900 --> 01:00:17,166 They were not washed in. 1356 01:00:17,266 --> 01:00:18,666 There's no, there's nothing in there 1357 01:00:18,766 --> 01:00:20,666 that's indicative of water of the strength 1358 01:00:20,766 --> 01:00:23,200 that it would take to move bone. 1359 01:00:23,300 --> 01:00:27,200 And we've got parts of bodies that are fully articulated. 1360 01:00:27,300 --> 01:00:30,400 It's clear that the bodies entered this chamber whole. 1361 01:00:30,500 --> 01:00:32,933 We've got great traces of what happened 1362 01:00:33,033 --> 01:00:35,766 to these bones at the time of decomposition. 1363 01:00:35,866 --> 01:00:37,266 We've got the little traces 1364 01:00:37,366 --> 01:00:39,266 that beetle mandibles make on it. 1365 01:00:39,366 --> 01:00:42,433 But in all of this, on no bone do we have something 1366 01:00:42,533 --> 01:00:46,166 that is a mark made by a carnivore. 1367 01:00:48,600 --> 01:00:50,766 So, there we have it. 1368 01:00:50,866 --> 01:00:52,466 They weren't dragged in by carnivores. 1369 01:00:52,566 --> 01:00:54,000 They were not subject to predation. 1370 01:00:54,100 --> 01:00:56,600 There's no carnivore that only eats hominins anyway, 1371 01:00:56,700 --> 01:00:58,200 not 15 of them. 1372 01:00:58,300 --> 01:01:00,700 (audience laughs) They're of all ages. 1373 01:01:00,800 --> 01:01:02,833 This isn't people that were exploring a cave 1374 01:01:02,933 --> 01:01:04,666 and got unluckily trapped there, right? 1375 01:01:04,766 --> 01:01:07,866 Unless they were exploring with babes in arms. 1376 01:01:07,966 --> 01:01:09,366 They were not living there. 1377 01:01:09,466 --> 01:01:11,666 There's no sign of detritus that they would've, you know, 1378 01:01:11,766 --> 01:01:14,566 of the stuff that they ate, they left in there. 1379 01:01:14,666 --> 01:01:17,500 They were clearly not using this chamber. 1380 01:01:17,600 --> 01:01:19,066 They may have been using other chambers. 1381 01:01:19,166 --> 01:01:20,666 We're investigating this, 1382 01:01:20,766 --> 01:01:22,933 but they weren't using this chamber to be in, 1383 01:01:23,033 --> 01:01:26,666 except to have their bodies in it. 1384 01:01:26,766 --> 01:01:28,566 We think the most likely scenario 1385 01:01:28,666 --> 01:01:32,966 is that Homo naledi deliberately deposited them there. 1386 01:01:34,100 --> 01:01:37,466 This species with a brain a third the size of ours 1387 01:01:37,566 --> 01:01:41,400 was collecting its dead and putting them in this place. 1388 01:01:43,166 --> 01:01:45,633 That tells us something really interesting, 1389 01:01:45,733 --> 01:01:47,400 really important I think. 1390 01:01:48,400 --> 01:01:50,666 A lot of people come away with that and say, 1391 01:01:50,766 --> 01:01:52,266 "Well, did they have religion? 1392 01:01:52,366 --> 01:01:54,366 "Was there some belief system that they had?" 1393 01:01:54,466 --> 01:01:55,700 We don't think that. 1394 01:01:55,800 --> 01:01:57,300 I think it's not a scientific question, 1395 01:01:57,400 --> 01:01:58,633 at this stage, obviously. 1396 01:01:58,733 --> 01:02:00,000 We don't think that. 1397 01:02:00,100 --> 01:02:02,566 We think that what they had was emotion. 1398 01:02:02,666 --> 01:02:05,466 We think that they had feeling for other social beings. 1399 01:02:05,566 --> 01:02:07,833 We see this among other primates. 1400 01:02:07,933 --> 01:02:12,133 So we know that this is something that's not a stretch. 1401 01:02:12,233 --> 01:02:13,866 What's different is that Homo naledi 1402 01:02:13,966 --> 01:02:17,000 had a culture that said, 1403 01:02:17,100 --> 01:02:19,366 "When the bodies are dead, put them here." 1404 01:02:19,466 --> 01:02:20,933 That's a minimum. 1405 01:02:21,033 --> 01:02:23,100 That's all that it took, we think. 1406 01:02:23,200 --> 01:02:24,533 But that does tell us a lot. 1407 01:02:24,633 --> 01:02:27,500 It tells us that these were cultural creatures. 1408 01:02:27,600 --> 01:02:29,800 We can't find a better explanation 1409 01:02:29,900 --> 01:02:32,366 at this moment for what happened. 1410 01:02:32,466 --> 01:02:34,233 But we're still investigating. 1411 01:02:36,133 --> 01:02:40,100 I can tell you that there are other hominin remains 1412 01:02:40,200 --> 01:02:43,466 inside the Rising Star Cave in different places. 1413 01:02:43,566 --> 01:02:46,566 So, we will learn more about what happened here. 1414 01:02:46,666 --> 01:02:48,500 We may discover other species of things, 1415 01:02:48,600 --> 01:02:50,266 or species we already know about. 1416 01:02:50,366 --> 01:02:53,333 We may find more of Homo naledi. 1417 01:02:53,433 --> 01:02:56,400 Just this week, from a nearby cave, 1418 01:02:56,500 --> 01:02:59,033 Sterkfontein, was reported a new area. 1419 01:02:59,133 --> 01:03:00,900 This cave is one of the most famous 1420 01:03:01,000 --> 01:03:03,133 in the world for producing hominin fossils, 1421 01:03:03,233 --> 01:03:05,833 but a team was working in a different area of the cave 1422 01:03:05,933 --> 01:03:08,666 and recovered a tooth and a finger. 1423 01:03:08,766 --> 01:03:11,900 And that tooth could be Homo naledi. 1424 01:03:12,000 --> 01:03:14,333 It looks a lot like it. We're not sure. 1425 01:03:14,433 --> 01:03:15,966 We have to look at it in person. 1426 01:03:16,066 --> 01:03:18,933 But one of the people working on it is Travis Pickering, 1427 01:03:19,033 --> 01:03:20,766 here in the department of anthropology. 1428 01:03:20,866 --> 01:03:22,800 So, we've really got the corner on the market 1429 01:03:22,900 --> 01:03:24,733 of Homo naledi at the moment. 1430 01:03:24,833 --> 01:03:27,233 It's exciting because anywhere we look, 1431 01:03:27,333 --> 01:03:29,366 we could turn this up and discover 1432 01:03:29,466 --> 01:03:31,400 the next piece of evidence. 1433 01:03:31,500 --> 01:03:34,266 But what this cave tells us more than anything else... 1434 01:03:36,533 --> 01:03:39,100 it's less than two miles from some 1435 01:03:39,200 --> 01:03:41,600 of the most famous fossil sites in the world, 1436 01:03:41,700 --> 01:03:44,766 and there it was, with the largest assemblage 1437 01:03:44,866 --> 01:03:48,566 of fossil hominins ever in Africa waiting to be found. 1438 01:03:50,433 --> 01:03:54,233 The next place we look could have something just as cool. 1439 01:03:55,766 --> 01:03:58,066 It's clear that we've only begun to scratch the surface 1440 01:03:58,166 --> 01:04:00,566 of what there is to discover. 1441 01:04:00,666 --> 01:04:01,933 In a place where people thought, 1442 01:04:02,033 --> 01:04:03,733 "Well, people have been looking for 70 years, 1443 01:04:03,833 --> 01:04:06,533 "what more could there be to find?" 1444 01:04:06,633 --> 01:04:08,133 When you find something like this, 1445 01:04:08,233 --> 01:04:11,366 and realize that the rest of the continent is there, 1446 01:04:11,466 --> 01:04:15,966 unexplored at that level of detail. 1447 01:04:16,066 --> 01:04:18,533 Our science is going to change a lot 1448 01:04:18,633 --> 01:04:22,533 in the next several years, and this is just the beginning. 1449 01:04:22,633 --> 01:04:24,066 So keep watching. 1450 01:04:24,166 --> 01:04:25,766 This is gonna be an exciting time. 1451 01:04:25,866 --> 01:04:27,633 We're discovering new things all the time. 1452 01:04:27,733 --> 01:04:29,533 We're going to have more new things 1453 01:04:29,633 --> 01:04:32,300 out of Rising Star and within, I'd say, a year, 1454 01:04:32,400 --> 01:04:34,633 you're going to hear some really crazy stuff. 1455 01:04:34,733 --> 01:04:36,866 So, keep watching. 1456 01:04:36,966 --> 01:04:38,200 Thank you everybody for coming out. 1457 01:04:38,300 --> 01:04:41,300 (applause)