Anthropology Blog- Why the Rising Star Cave

The remains of the homo-naledi have always been there. If that is the case why are we just now finding these remains? What were the remains doing in the Rising Star cave in the first place? My favorite part of exploring scientific discoveries is that at first usually no one can agree on what has happened, everyone has a different theory about what happened and while science is all about making guesses it still feels good to get it right on the first try. When the first remains were found one of the first questions was what were they doing in a cave. At first it was plausible that maybe they lived there or were stuck. Neither of those hypotheses fit because who could possibly squish into that small of an area on their own and the choose to stay there all condensed, that theory quickly was tossed out which is when the theory of being stuck came into play. The h.naledi could have fell in and became stuck, was unable to free themselves and died from starvation and the harsh elements. This theory work for quite a while that is until two years later when more remains were found on another side of the rising star cave. That many people could not have all fallen in at the same time and all been stuck, it could have happened but it was completely unreasonable. More theories arose maybe the h.naledi were already dead and the was a flood or natural disaster that pushed all of their remains into those cave openings, no evidence of that. There is still no consensus as to why the remains were in that cave but a general belief is that the Rising Star cave could have been where dead bodies were put. The cave had small openings, open enough to dispose of a body and hopefully not have to deal with it again.

Anthropology Blog 4- Neo and his friends

I believe it is safe to assume the general idea of the discovery of a new species has been covered. Below I have included a picture of what anthropologists believe the homo-naledi looked like during their time. Bones and anatomy have worked together to create this realistic picture of the species. This includes remains like those of Neo. Neo was found in a cave with the remains of two adults and one child. In this image you can see he has bone structure of that similar to other hominins, there are very distinct differences through. Its upper body, mainly the torso resembles that of an ape while legs and hands are distinctly those of homo-sapiens or humans. The shape of the fingers indicates the ability to climb or make tools while long legs and feet show ability to walk. Though its body has a striking resemblance to humans, their brain was only the size of a small piece of fruit. This mix of primitive and advanced evolution in one spices is what makes this discovery so unique and inviting, reading on this amazing species endowed in me a new appreciation for anthropology and evolution.

Anthropology blog the cave of life

In the first blog post I touched for a brief second on how and where the homo-naledi was discovered. Now I want to go in depth and explain where the remains were found as it has a direct effect on the newest found remain Neo which will be explained in depth in the next blog post. If you can refer to the image below for reference. This is the Rising Star cave; the original remains of the homo- naledi was found here as well as the additional 130 specimens that were later on recovered. The original chamber where the first remains were found is called the Dinaledi, this is the image on the map that is outlined and circled in blue. The image on the map that is outlined and circled in yellow is the second chamber of the Rising Star cave system called Lesedi. Throughout this chamber there are many other entrances to the cave but these are the only ones you really need to remember. "The second chamber, named Lesedi—for the Setswana word for “light”". This is a beautiful name for a cave which goes perfectly with the name Neo. Neo is the name given to the adult male remains found in the cave, it is Sesotho and means gift. The "Light" gave a gift to us and he is a homo-naledi named Neo.

Anthropology blog 2- homo naledi and homo sapian

So... homo-naledi, pretty crazy right? If the time line of when the fossils were dated holds up this means that the homo-naledi lived during the early middle stone ago, when you actually think about that, it was not too long ago that the homo-naledi lived. During this time the homo-neanderthalensis and the homo-erectus lived. When the homo-naledi died off, us, the homo sapiens had just started. However, reading many articles publishes beforehand, no one could initially agree on exactly when the homo-naledi lived. While dating techniques for bones are quite advanced now, quite a few of the would-be dating processes could prove detrimental to the fossil and could potentially destroy it completely. In the end there was rigorous testing of the bones to find an exact date of the bones and eventually came to the conclusion that the homo-naledi lived about 335,000 years ago. Unknown to researchers more remains of the homo naledi were found next to the original cave the first remains were found, which we will talk about in the next entry.

Anthropology Blog 1

So, I am new to blogging but the easiest way to learn is to jump right in, here I will explore new scientific finds in the last few years primarily the homo-Naledi spices that were discovered 2 or 3 years ago. The purpose of this my blog is to discuss the differences and similarities between the newly discovered spices the homo-Naledi, our spices the homo-sapiens and what this new discovery could mean for us. First off you might be asking what exactly is a homo-Naledi, the home-Naledi is a hominin that was found in a cave in South Africa by cave explorers. Their fossils "revealed a tiny-brained species with shoulders and a torso like an ape’s, but with some unshakably humanlike features as well." This new species shared multiple characteristics with another hominin but not exactly the same as any we had known. Imagine that 2015 and we are still making breakthrough scientific discoveries. Through anthropology, we understand the process of evolution and the birth and extinction of new species, fossils paint a more or less clear picture based on the density of the bone, bone structure, and many more factors. Researchers were able to date these bones between 230,000 and 335,000 years old. However, this becomes more interesting if you look at the time period and what other species were also alive at that time.

Final Project - Carissa Chacon

I really enjoyed doing this project. I had a lot of fun incorporating something that I do on a daily basis - my makeup. For about a week, any time that one of my family members or myself would walk into my room, we had to do a little bit of everything. One splash of foundation, one splash of concealer, a dab of blush, draw a line using eyeliner, scrape mascara underneath the line, swatch any type of eyeshadow, and lastly, pick a lipstick and kiss the board. I might've went a bit overboard with the instructions and materials to use, but I wanted the project to really focus on something that I do on a daily basis, which is using all of those products. The project itself was messy, but I liked it because it gave the project character. Not to mention, doing a full face of makeup is always messy. Overall, I really enjoyed having complete freedom with this project and being able to express myself one last time with something that I enjoy the most. Thanks for an awesome and fun semester, Jessica!

Project #6 - Carissa Chacon

For this project, I had a very difficult time trying to gather my ideas and how I wanted to go about with it. I ended up missing class the day we started this project and was a bit lost afterwards. I feel like I did my best to complete the guidelines since I was in a bit of a rush to do this project, but I know this project could've had more potential. Unfortunately, my 3D effect that I wanted to create didn't come out as well as I wanted it to and I had some trouble with the pins and the foam core board. Overall, I wish I had done better on this project, but I know I did my best as far as completing guidelines.