Direct dating places Homo naledi between 236,000 and 335,000 years ago, overlapping with early Homo sapiens. The video argues that its small brain and complex behavior challenge the cerebral-rubicon idea that a much larger brain was required for human-like cognition.
The video argues Homo naledi challenges the cerebral rubicon
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Key facts
- A 2017 direct-dating study places the Homo naledi fossils between 236,000 and 335,000 years ago.
- That range overlaps with early Homo sapiens, dated to about 315,000 years ago, and with Neanderthals.
- Homo naledi had an estimated endocranial volume of about 465 cm³.
- The original 'cerebral rubicon' proposal placed the possible threshold near 600 cm³, not 750 cm³, and did not establish a requirement for 'true human intelligence.'
- The video argues that H. naledi's survival, associated burials and engravings challenge accounts of cognition based on brain size alone; the behavioral interpretations remain debated.
- Multiple Homo lineages overlapped, so small-brained hominins coexisted with large-brained humans.
- The video presents H. naledi as challenging a 40,000–50,000-year symbolic-revolution model. The dating itself does not establish symbolic thought, and evidence for older symbolic behavior already exists.
Sources
newscientist.com
Linked in video description
sciencefocus.com
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in-africa.org
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elifesciences.org
Linked in video description
elifesciences.org
Linked in video description
The age of Homo naledi and associated sediments in ...elifesciences.org
by PHGM Dirks · 2017 · Cited by 401 — H. naledi fossils are between 236 and 335 thousand years old, an average age of 200 +70/–61 ka. Homo naledi to a period between 236 ka and 335 ...
What Homo Naledi Means for the Study of Human Evolutionbiologos.org
The radiometric dates—recorded using several methods carried out at different laboratories—yielded almost identical ages of between 236 and 300 ...
Homo naledi, your recently discovered human relativenhm.ac.uk
The age published in 2017 took scientists by surprise: they were between 236,000 and 335,000 years old.
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