The Homo naledi Situation Somehow got Even Weirder

[@Aireze_]

My wife just opened this video while saying, aloud, "TELL ME ABOUT HOMO NALEDI, QUEEN" so that's how my morning is going

[@babotond]

🍀

[@johnoglesby-vw7ck]

Best comment!

[@user-gk9lg5sp4y]

I think I would like your wife

[@cswanson4476]

So did you tell her?

[@procrastinator41]

😆

[@daytonturner2388]

As 81 year old, high school educated novice, that video has a clarity and informative quality to it that is rare. Thank you for some great work.

[@noparnel1]

If you’re new to the channel, buckle up! She’s Johnny on the spot. The best.

[@ajpend]

This channel is tops.

[@mattburgess5697]

Homo naledi is the Spinosaurus of paleo-anthropology. I will not be taking questions.

[@Fade2GrayOG]

I understood that reference!

[@TlalocTemporal]

One one hand, we have many complete seletons of h. naledi, on the other hand, Spinosaurus probably has a few species across multiple continents.

[@TuberoseKisser]

No you're right

[@sarasmr4278]

No yeah I'm with you

[@ltlwlwl5057]

👍🏻

[@Lyrazel]

"My gentle and of course very modern apes" is becoming a sort of pavlovs bell for ridiculously fascinating content. Like climbing the top of the first hill on an intellectual rollercoaster.

[@MereMeerkat]

Data: *does not match expectations* What YECs think scientists do: "Quickly, we must hide this data!" Actual scientists: "EVERYONE COME LOOK AT THIS WEIRD DATA LOL"

[@EricEstesEleutherian]

Yes! 😂

[@neclark08]

...DING -- DING -- DING -- DING -- DING -- DING..!

[@neclark08]

...1B. "Quickly ! We must hide this Data!" -- How #YECs Themselves behave when their own research uncovers data which does not Conform to their Bible-based expectations.:

[@morganbenthem9600]

For real! One of the coolest things about science tbh

[@speed65752]

Who are YECs?

[@Lorenzo_That_Vegan_Dad]

"We're all homos. Homo sapiens" - Michael Scott

[@queens.dee.223]

Great username BTW!

[@HissoriRenda]

I just set out for a 38-minute car ride and Erika uploads a 38 minute video therefore god is real.

[@jacobreese735]

And she's a gibbon

[@angrydoggy9170]

That’s the best proof I’ve heard so far.

[@shepshep8654]

god must love us.

[@Kyeudo]

Better evidence than most YECs can put forward.

[@IcountedHangingChads]

Cool paper D and colleagues!

[@rynther]

Always fun when the conclusion of a paper includes "this is not what we expected"

[@Wolf_Avatar]

Such a neat little bite-sized video! Very cool paper.

[@babotond]

kilobite-sized... lol

[@sl1763]

You said a mouthful,

[@werwurm]

Maybe we are looking at the den of a prehistoric serial killer with a very distinct type.

[@drs-xj3pb]

How about if Berger is right about ritual and we're looking at human sacrifice? That could count, I think, as serial killing with a distinct type.

[@scoutharris8586]

It's interesting they haven't found any artifacts in burial site. Usually sacrifices or burials have elaborate artifacts along with them​@@drs-xj3pb

[@warrenrross]

Or predation from a highly intelligent species… like a more deadly hominid. 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@MossyMozart]

@@drs-xj3pb - I was wondering about human sacrifice, too, down into that deep dark sacred cave, and the sacrificee might have to meet certain requirements. ------------- (By the way, I don't think you would think of sacrifice as serial killing, though. Serial killing is against societal norms, and is highly frowned upon, whereas, sacrifice might have BEEN the norm, and frowned on only by that sacrificee. >_< )

[@andrek6920]

​@@warrenrrossI was thinking close family tribe lifestyle where one tribe eradicated the males of another. Seems most likely to me.

[@FasterThanRaito]

Where does this naledi corpse go? That's right! the cave-hole. :D And where does this other naledi corpse go? that's right! in the cave-hole! :O

[@babotond]

😅 oh, god, 😭

[@krembryle]

This is the best comment here and it should be the first recommendation. I'm disappointed it isn't in the top 5 comments.

[@LaSerpentDEden]

And where does *this* naledi corpse go? That's right! In the cave hole. D:

[@babotond]

@@LaSerpentDEden the naledi corpse hole ... ? 😰

[@procrastinator41]

😆

[@albal9462]

I really enjoy hearing the dog feet tapping around in the background. I really enjoyed the whole video but the dog tippy tappies really brought a smile to my face. Thank you!!

[@dm_nimbus]

"I don't want to go in the hole. I'm not dead yet! I'm getting better!"

[@Scanner9631]

You're going in the hole and taking your parrot with you.

[@johnoglesby-vw7ck]

But the parrot is not dead, it's sleeping

[@whatabouttheearth]

Don't worry, Kristi Noems not here.

[@whatabouttheearth]

Don't worry, Kristi Noems not here.

[@msr305]

Best comment ever -

[@benhbook]

As a non-scientist I usually zero in right on the conclusions of a study I look up, but I really appreciated the breakdown of the clever way the authors of this paper found their conclusions. We apes are smart!

[@lat1419]

As a scientist (albeit not in this field), looking at methods and data as well as results is something too few do.

[@Rednecknerd_rob9634]

Ape. Together. Smart.

[@PZMyersBiology]

My first thought was that H. naledi might well have been a highly inbred, relic population of small size. Also, it doesn't count as much as the expert reviewers, but I gave a couple of the Berger papers to my first year biology students, and we discussed them in class, and they said kind of the same thing…that the data doesn't support the conclusion. It should worry Berger that he can't make a strong case to a bunch of impressionable freshmen.

[@montyiscool11]

And so really, don't marry your cousin, or someday archeologists may puzzle over you.

[@TuberoseKisser]

I would think this too however I question if ancient humans would have had that anti-inbreeding instinct that majority of animals have.

[@ciredan8888]

me too! i figure if phenotypical variation is so low then its likely indicative of low genetic variation as well.. so much is up to soft tissues, which is what i loove abt paleontology. goofy comment cool ass paper

[@beastmaster0934]

So even the Paleolithic people has their own inbred yokels, eh?

[@LoisoPondohva]

​@@ciredan8888 it isn't that strong of an instinct in most animals. It definitely not strong enough to prevent breeding if NO other choices are available. I'd call it more of an anti-inbreeding preference. I've had a lot of pets, my grandfather had a free-range farm and I've done field work as an ecologist. If there's a couple of males in a population of females that are related to them in cows or sheep, for example, they don't seem to care. Get a litter of puppies, don't fix them and see what eventually happens.

[@johannageisel5390]

"Oh gawd, there is another clone of Nonah coming. Let's chuck her in the cave with the others." - _H. naledi_

[@ReidMerrill]

There needs to be a human species that translates to "weird little guy"

[@IlIlllIllIlIIIll]

Time to remembering Homo Florencius

[@tims5268]

Homo DeVito

[@aidanmatthewgalea7761]

i find it funny how homo floresiensis is pretty much an IRL hobbit but indonesian. hell it's even nicknamed "Hobbit man" because it stands at a whopping metre tall, at most. more morbidly funny is that there's some evidence (and by that i mean almost entirely pure theory) that the indian myths of the monkey war might have been them encountering homo floresiensis and exterminating them out of tribalistic fear

[@MossyMozart]

@@aidanmatthewgalea7761 - Cut it out. People make ancient myths fit any occasion. Myths are woven from cobwebs. The Tigris floods one day --- people shout NOAH! No, just another bad flood. My sister-in-law can't remember where her elderly uncle's wife was buried and she took him to the funeral! People CANNOT remember whispers from 10s, 100s, 1,000s, or 1,000,000s of years ago.

[@Cat_Woods]

​@@MossyMozart THANK YOU! I get so fed up of people saying things like "The basis of this myth could have been some guy who did x y and z." So what? Myths spread. The basis could be anything. There's absolutely no reason to assume that myths have a kernel of history in them. They generally do not.

[@chrispysaid]

I watch Erika for the same reason Americans watch French films I don't understand most of what's said, but I sure feel more cultured

[@procrastinator41]

😆

[@Rednecknerd_rob9634]

But um.. I don't watch French stuff. lol, My British ancestors would haunt me if I did lol.

[@georgschafer740]

@@Rednecknerd_rob9634 The British always liked French stuff.

[@sammysamlovescats]

Me, with 0 knowledge about hominids: KZbin: Here have a video about Homo naledi Me: I am now emotionally invested in this

[@bosunbones.8815]

Erika does that. She talks nerdy really well, even I can understand some of it!

[@omgmo1962]

Homo naledi wasn't my gateway hominin when it was first published, but it definitely triggered my interest again back in 2015. I hope this sparks a new interest in you, newcomer 😂

[@tamjammy4461]

You have a lot of catching up to do....as did I when I started getting interested. I am now obsessed ( according to my partner) . It's a fascinating story , made all the more so by the character of some of the anthropologists involved-- particularly Lee Berger. He seems to generate love and hate in equal proportion. Anyway, glad you enjoyed this and hope you go on to enjoy much more.

[@OneLeggedDiver]

We welcome you

[@BlueBonnie764]

Yup, she does that to a wide variety of modern apes. LOL 🌎

[@DanielSecoForsnacke-uw3lo]

Could it be that the bias comes partly from the fact that the cave is so narrow, making it impossible for larger individuals to be deposited there?

[@borkabrak]

That's a neat idea,but naledi is smaller than sapiens, and several of us have gotten in. Of course, the only naledi samples we have are already inside the cave, so your theory may work..

[@EricRoberts2112]

​@@borkabrakthey had to hire short, female anthropologists when they initially excavated the cave because of the size restrictions imposed by the cave. All that means is that we have homo sapiens that are around the same size as homo naledi...😊

[@RomulusMorgan]

Lee Burger is a fascinating and controversial figure without fail. Sorry about that. Love from a regular viewer in South Africa!

[@angrydoggy9170]

I get peckish whenever I hear the name.

[@RomulusMorgan]

@@angrydoggy9170oh same, I can’t wait to hear what nonsense he’s concocted when his name is mentioned xD

[@Talvaemiir]

It would be interesting to compare tooth variation to human neolithic sites that are understood to be families, like those at Windover pond or Gurgy ‘les Noisats’.

[@GuyNamedSean]

Early Homo news? I'm always excited. After the last Homo naledi update, I can't wait to see what's going on now.

[@FairlyFatherless]

Shout out to all my fellow Homo. New Homo lore dropped.

[@HNH421]

Dynasty but with weird little guys as the cast - type thing ? JR weird little guy - no Suellen you are going in the hole, till you dry out.

[@sarahlawley2076]

My brain hurts watching your videos and I like it! I love that you're making this field of research accessible and yet not dumbing it down.

[@TheSpinbeast]

cool paper !

[@PatchesStudios]

Thank you for going through papers that aren’t public access, I am a poor gal that just wants to learn. The academic paywall will be the death of me

[@RadikAlice]

And the death of knowledge itself!

[@lethargogpeterson4083]

Like Erika said, the restraint and measured conclusions of the paper authors is very respectable. Kudos to them. .... Also, it's aliens (just kidding.)

[@timeneses]

Untrue! They are Atlantean. /jk

[@crow-dont-know]

Nope. It’s the Silurians. I too am only doing the kidding.

[@TlalocTemporal]

Would anyone believe Lemurians? Living underground, isolated from the greater world? No?

[@Enyavar1]

They are neither of all, they are the lost precursor civilization to Atlantis, Lemuria, Mu and Siluria, and they obviously ritually buried their women. Also, they _didn't_ have fire, only electricity and psi powers.

[@Cat_Woods]

@@Enyavar1 "Also, they didn't have fire, only electricity and psi powers." I almost spit out my tea on my keyboard when I read that. 🤣

[@Valdagast]

According to my extensive research (5 seconds on Google), _Homo Erectus_ hanged out until 120,000 years ago, so that's pretty recent as well.

[@procrastinator41]

“Hung” out (Sorry, both my parents were English teachers😆)

[@Valdagast]

@@procrastinator41I'll accept the rebuke.

[@procrastinator41]

@@Valdagast nothing so strong as a rebuke, only a minor correction 😺

[@gerardmichaelburnsjr.]

To my mind, erectus is where we really became human. They started out small brains and ended up with fairly large brains wild very little else changed.

[@IcountedHangingChads]

Erika not only are your content interesting but your presentation skills are excellent. For example, the changes in you tone, your facial expressions , etc add to rather than detract from the content

[@crownhouse2466]

Cool paper, Delezene and colleagues! I Think they would appreciate that!

[@ZeroAlligator]

Baboon: “Watcha’ll doin in here?”…

[@jimrodarmel8512]

All the dead homonin corpses are eerily silent ... Presently Baboon realizes he's trapped.

[@johannageisel5390]

I want to believe that the poor baboon was chucked in there by accident, after having been mistaken for a Homo naledi by some very short sighted people.

[@briggs5534]

maybe baboon's torch went out and he couldn't find his way out after following the fresh meat smell in ...

[@shroomie8328]

Two days ago I started hyperfixating on homo naledi and got annoyed at how slow sience is (which is good, but I just want to know everything about those weirdos, yk?) and now we have a new paper about it :]] thank you for covering this, it's so useful when stuff is behind a paywall

[@Callordin]

I'm happy that the peer review process is on it! I'm deeply concerned about papers being published beside thorough critique when they're are contingents of folk determined to take things out of context to spread clickbait.

[@joelledurben3799]

I agree, but also - peer-review couldn't stop the flat-earthers. Sometimes peer-review can be over-jealous, blocking research that contradicts their theories. Sometimes it takes a generation before the data can be presented without bruising egos. The examples that come to mind in archaeology are Piltdown Man (anything to support our theory), and John Pull (we can't have non-professionals making discoveries - destroy the evidence), but it happens across the board. It's a tricky balance to find between accessibility and bureaucracy, especially with a surfeit of information and constantly evolving fields of study.

[@jillelizabeth1737]

The Homo Naledi story was my gateway drug into a casual, fulfilling interest in paleo anthropology, which I totally missed in school. I feel weird about Rising Star now, but I’ll be forever grateful for it.

[@amandaw6872]

@GutsickGibbon - just a minor technical note, & minor enough that it does not stop me from getting excited every time I see a new video posted! Lol I've noticed in several recent videos, the old problem of soumd/video being out of sync has cropped up again! (Not thru the whole video, just in sections.) Since I know nothing of the video editing process, I have no idea what issue may be indicated by this, but figured I'd flag it, as these sort of quality issues have potential to undermine the perception of some in the incredible value of the material you present! Love your channel, & very very much appreciate the efforts you put in to making complicated scientific ideas accessible to us plebes of the uninducted masses! I was raised with a YEC background & didn't pick any of the correct info up in my particular college major, so your videos are a huge source of un-/re-learning "real" science for me! 😁

[@LaSerpentDEden]

Was looking to see if anyone else had noticed this 😂 I patch my KZbin app with a client so it can sometimes desync audiovisual. Reset the app, the video started, it was fine. Went back to the time and boom. Off sync. Had a laugh 😊

[@jimrodarmel8512]

audio & video out of sync probably not gutsick's fault. I see this all over the place on youTube, also more often starting about 2 yrs ago. Have no idea why. Probably just a system-wide tech glitch that has not become enough of an annoyance for anybody to fix.

[@amandaw6872]

@@jimrodarmel8512 I haven't watched enough other channels recently to notice - hopefully that's what it is, as our lovely science communicator has more than enough demands on her time without having to deal with this as well! 😂

[@theflyingdutchguy9870]

would be pretty cool if we discover homo naledi lived in tribes where the males and females lived apart most of the time, only coming together when mating. that would be wild!

[@steelesmith1379]

that wouldn’t make much sense due to delegations of needs? most large mammals have long gestation periods. i don’t think any of us can afford to split society down by the gender. that would insinuate a low care reproduction strategy, which means they would have many children and very few would survive into adulthood. on the other hand perhaps a small group of dominant males mated with the female breeding group, thus producing genetic similarities between the offspring.

[@TheFandomExpert]

Cool paper Delezene and colleagues! (and thanks for talking to us about it ms Gibbon!)

[@stalbaum]

So the space brothers were here playing with hominid cloning. There, I fixed it.

It's pronounced "eeking" Also, Clarke said "The universe isn't just weirder than we imagine, it's weirder than we >can< imagine"

[@LaSerpentDEden]

Eke Like Fr-eak without the fr is how I was taught

[@feelswriter]

Even the Brits?

[@danielmassey8911]

I was so happy to see you dropped a video that I muted the baseball game for a few innings. First goofy post from a patreon late joiner. Keep it up!

[@cojo9656]

the algorithm demands interaction. Therefore, beans.

[@13shadowwolf]

Re-fry! Re-fry! Re-fry!

[@roryfletcher1827]

I’m sure there is some highly controversial evidence that purports that H Naledi had a huge Mexican franchise to financially support their ritualistic (ie not understood) activities.

[@cojo9656]

beans

[@pufffincrazy5275]

What about baked beans D:

[@FreemanPresson]

If this is the terminal population of H. naledi, then it is more likely that the population had a recent genetic bottleneck. That's the best straw I can grasp at.

[@slwrabbits]

Sounds plausible to me!

[@TSteffi]

Isn't it possible that we are looking at a group of individuals who entered the cave system to escape some kind of danger, got lost and/or stuck, and died. If it was a related group, that could explain the low variation.

[@jondorr4011]

So if I remember correctly, the skeletons were all dated to different times. In the geological sense they are contemporaneous but I don't believe they were all from a single group in one specific point in time. However I can't say that for certain right now.

[@TSteffi]

@@jondorr4011 that is what I am not certain about either. It could have any number of reasons why there is such low variation. Another possibility would be something like a "rite of passing", basically a challenge to achieve some kind of status. But then again, that would imply a pretty advanced culture in my opinion. Whatever the case, I find this whole discovery most fascinating.

[@CitrianSnailBY]

My thought exactly.

[@MaryAnnNytowl]

​@@TSteffiif I recall correctly, there was a fairly significant age difference between the geological level of the "top" one and the level of the "lowest" one in the burial columns.

[@BillySugger1965]

I guess. But maybe it could be a super isolated population near extinction which has a lot of in-breeding out of necessity. Hence low genetic variation.

[@waxwinged_hound]

I have a math disability, so I appreciate your explanation of what the math is intended to do and what the result means. That aside, this is wild. I love watching the scientific method play out, especially through something as weird as this.

[@RurikDankil]

I have to womder what an unintentional ritualistic burial would be, as the ritual denotes intention. Even, for example, placing bodies near where a landslide would occure would denote intention. There, goofy algorithm comment left.

[@roryfletcher1827]

I was seriously under the impression that if an archaeologist did not understand something, the knee jerk response is always ‘ritual’. I do believe ‘we have no idea’ is a more valid response.

[@PromptedHawk]

@@roryfletcher1827 Assuming ritual is a fairly common joke in archaeology, it's not like they're unaware of this tendency. That said, I suppose it kinda depends on how widely you define ritual behaviour - Jewish Halacha commands people to wash their hands before and after eating a meal with bread, and using the bathroom. Without knowledge of Judaism and Jewish custom, would this be called ritual even though it also happens to serve a very real, life saving purpose? If it were called ritual, would this recontextualise all finds of bathrooms with sinks to be ritualistic sites, like small altars in homes? There's a fair bit more nuance to this, but this is just intended as food for thought. Another example would be phones - imagine that you are an alien archaeologist happening upon Earth a long time after humans have gone extinct and you find many houses all have several hunks of rust with a pane of glass attached to one side, in differing sizes, some scattered around the place and some placed in a drawer together (if the people liked hoarding their old phones for some reason). You'd even find some people with such objects. How do you tell apart a necessary tool from a ritual item that people kept in their home or on their person for worship, luck, protection, or a thousand other possible reasons? I agree that "I don't know" is a much better answer than ritual or necessary tool, but I don't think anyone directly jumps to ritual with 100% confidence anymore either. PS: Upon rereading this comment, I don't know if I'm really saying anything with it, but I developed a few ideas I had lying around and I think they might be worth sharing so I'm posting this anyway. Thanks for reading, if you have.

[@gerardmonsen1267]

@@roryfletcher1827Shhhh! You're giving away the secret! We astrophysicists do the same thing with the word "Dark" which translates in layman speak to "We have no idea why it's doing this."

[@Padraigp]

Yeah unintentional and ritualistic seem like mutually exclusive words

[@joelledurben3799]

​@@Padraigp I'm not sure. Does unintentional mean accidental? When does learned behaviour become habit become ritual? Here's a spectrum of behaviours I just put together, all of which can be done by modern humans and many by animals: 1. completely accidental (tripped and died alone) 2. put the dead out of the way (like ants - is this intentional, or just clearing out the remains with the trash?) 3. unintentionally failed to survive a non-death ritual (like a dare or pilgrimage). 4. put this body/myself where we put the one last year (like elephants?) 5. learned behaviour - copying what my parents/neighbors did (crows?) 6. intentional logic - keep away the predators, accessibility for burial (many sick/injured animals hide, if they can, to recover or die in peace). 7. sentimental care - laid out in a comfortable-looking way, near family/friends, survivors can visit the site (also like elephants) 8. ritual/tradition - facing north, with a knife 9. complex ritual - evidence of feasting, elaborate grave-goods, etc.

[@robinredbeard]

I so very much appreciate you helping us keep up on anthropology in general and the Rising Star Cave in particular. What a SPECTACULAR site! Thank you

[@frankhudek4916]

I love your posts. You make me strain my brain. I'm a science buff and I have learned so much from you.

[@msr305]

Don't you wish more higher education folks would youtube their papers?

[@intercat4907]

If there is indeed another entrance that was far more accessible to Naledi, there will be a lot of annoyed archaeologists - both the ones who went through so much to get back and forth in that cave and the ones who were stuck outside.

[@Sugar3Glider]

**casts engagement**

[@Mircyaa]

*engages fiercely*

[@AlexandriaOcean]

Thank you for these updates, this cave system and finding are the reason i started watching your channel. So glad I did, was never very good when in came to biology and was happy to find someone that can explain it in a way that I can understand.

[@FranBunnyFFXII]

Lee sure did get himself into a bit of a pickle hasn't he. This saga has been going on for a decade now.

[@peterloichtl4512]

Lee is making better money then he ever has laughing😊to the bank no matter what the yappers yap.

[@stuartdryer1352]

Science is not about getting rich and at the very least being rich is not a valid defense against criticism (or yapping as you call it). (​@@peterloichtl4512

[@sciencecompliance235]

Last I heard controversy was profitable. Think of all the studies these perplexing results will fund.

[@RestingJudge]

I remember watching a documentary here on KZbin back during my senior year of high school. Thought it was interesting but quickly went to college. This passed year has been a blast from the past.

[@cynthiadugan858]

Thanks Erica! That was great. I am fascinated by the “bizarrities” in our family.

[@ksmeowmy8743]

Fascinating. Questions, questions, and not many answers-which means an exciting time to be in the field. Thanks for the video!

[@mari0n333]

Thanks for covering this. My favorite videos of yours are the ones where you cover recent papers, plus I'm obsessed with the homo naledi situation.

[@mariemeyer]

Dear algorithm, this is my goofy comment. Do your thing.

[@Sepi-chu_loves_moths]

To the top

[@jean-lucleblanc5825]

Rise, my child.

[@MargarineMeadow]

Dear algorithm, this is my goofy response. I hope that it satisfies you in a similar fashion to a top level comment. Do your thing.

[@pRODIGAL_sKEPTIC]

Comments help!

[@omgmo1962]

So silly of you!

[@freddyvejen743]

Mind blown, thank you Erica, Delezene et al. Hey algo, look here, Erica has done well again!

[@kringhetto]

Thanks for posting Erika!. As always, it was a pleasure listening to you.

[@juliacohen6584]

The Naledi story keeps getting better and Gutsick Gibbon presents it brilliantly.

[@mjjoe76]

Thank you for this summary. 🙂

[@DH-pw1do]

I always enjoy your reviews of these interesting and a bit strange papers. I love the way you take tihings apart in your analysis, laying out a clear logical path for your conclusions!! Love it !

[@annemarielara1962]

That was a great video on a very interesting paper! I'm actually doing my end-of-degree thesis on Homo naledi, so I'll definitely include it, thanks!

[@TaylorDekar]

Fantastic video! I love hearing these updates.

[@cbbuntz]

New Gutsick Gibbon video = good day

[@AlbertaGeek]

I woke up to a snowstorm, so yes, it's a good day to stay inside and watch Erika do her thing.

[@JaniceinOR]

Also staying in out of the weather, though here in Portland OR the weather I am avoiding is rain.

[@msr305]

Well said.

[@Phox532]

Cool paper, researchers who do the real work out here. Great stuff Erica, I watch all your videos. In a past life I attempted to become an Pelo-anthropologist. Now I teach middle and high school government. Keep up the videos and good luck on your education.

[@thebulletproofpoet1744]

Gentle modern apes, Screens glow with their curiosity, Nature meets tech's grace.

[@heronheronhero]

Its hard to focus Without sand cutting misc clips Am i the asshole? (A haiku, i think)

[@QuintShortell]

⁠@@heronheronherochange videos for footage or movies and you got a haiku, you’re one syllable over on the middle line!

[@heronheronhero]

@QuintShortell ah I triple checked and it still got past me :sob: thank you

[@sciencecompliance235]

If that's supposed to be a haiku, the middle line has 9 syllables. It should have 7.

[@jimrodarmel8512]

@@heronheronhero 5-7-5, that's a haiku AFAIK.

[@godlessyuri]

There's no way trying to read this paper I could've understood the implications all on my own. Glad we have an expert like Erika to let us know when a big paper drops and to give her analysis.

[@timllj1005]

A new Gutsick Gibbon video - a new piece of brain strain for me to handle - but in such a good way - thank you!

[@msr305]

yeah, I had to look up basel and derived...haha

[@idaslapter5987]

I have no idea why you showed up in my feed or why I clicked or why I watched the whole video... but hey, cool paper!

[@kdaviper]

First serial killer in recorded history?

[@SECONDQUEST]

Storing food later lmao

[@jean-lucleblanc5825]

Lmao as good a theory as any other

[@andreasvox8068]

Serial killer specializing on smiles?

[@crow-dont-know]

Oh god, I hadn’t thought of it through that lens

[@hardcoreherbivore4730]

Given the age of the remains span 100k years, I’d say the evidence doesn’t support the conclusion.

[@nikigibbs3042]

Just discovered your channel yesterday. Love it, finally KZbin recommend something awesome 🎉🎉🎉🎉 Thank you, will be checking out your other videos.

[@Zictomorph]

It is to my chagrin and joy to get some details about evolution ironed out in my 40's. Thanks!

[@CacklingCorvid]

I loved the way you broke down this paper! It made it way more approachable.

[@cabbking]

Cool video, again, Erica. Don’t quit KZbin once you finish your dissertation, please.

[@CrankyQuokka]

I always love seeing your work. Some does fly over my head in understanding, but I just go back, watch again, and look up other sources if need be then. Thanks for keeping my mind ticking over 😊

[@L_Train]

I would love to see a historical fiction movie with ealry homo sapien intermingling with all the other members of the genus.

[@PeachysMom]

Question for Fire attempted it. I still love the movie, it fires my imagination

[@aliahope-wilson4449]

​@@PeachysMom *Quest 😅 Now I need to go watch it again...

[@PeachysMom]

@@aliahope-wilson4449 oops typo!

[@drs-xj3pb]

Of course that movie might end up being about genocide. Don't think I'd want to see that.

[@a.karley4672]

Hollywood would be terrified to deal with the inter-species sex aspect that is unavoidable. After all, it's within living memory that inter-racial relationships (let alone kissing, or sex) was a banned subject. Check out the "Hayes Code".

[@harmonymoxham1719]

This was interesting. I love your channel

[@joannamost8592]

That intro is sick as hell

[@TSteffi]

The intro is a shortened version of the old one. I really liked the longer one.

[@KCatch22]

Did you see her 100k subscriber video? The mind adapted?

[@MaryAnnNytowl]

​@@JD-wu5pfI'm right there with you. I miss the full-length one, too!

[@moehoward01]

Is that good or bad?

[@Bildgesmythe]

I miss the old one

[@ronethan]

Literally went to sleep last night listening to you reviewing the peer reviews... Just to wake up to this! Amazing!

[@procrastinator41]

🎖️

[@bushmasterflash]

Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and Pluto comments also help the algorithm.

[@sl1763]

Im in.

[@mieliav]

this isn't at all my field, but you are a terrific teacher, so it's totally fascinating. thanks!

[@IlIlllIllIlIIIll]

Hypothesis: a family of low-variation hominids went exploring in the cave, got disoriented and confused thanks to cave gas. They eventually succumbed to the fumes. Cave gas no longer exists, for unexplained reasons.

[@aidanmatthewgalea7761]

the cave gas can actually be carbon monoxide, or even just plain carbon dioxide, which probably existed in like the edge-of-semi-lethal concentrations, then reacted into CO2 after a few millenia of just being in the air with oxygen present, and as air currents in the cave changed, as well as flora above and near the cave, which would affect CO2 concentration via the carbonic acid cycle, as CO and CO2 would slowly stop being present as the rock reformed and no more external systems were inputting CO2. thus the very progression of the cave's formation would have gradually removed any CO2 if there weren't any more plants or rivers or streams nearby to deposit CO2 and CO as carbonic acid

[@docostler]

_Unexplained_ cave gas no longer exists, for unexplained reasons. FIFY

[@a.karley4672]

@@aidanmatthewgalea7761 Carbon monoxide is vanishingly unlikely, in a cave. Carbon dioxide poisoning is very rare - under 1% of deaths recorded by the CRO (Cave Rescue Organization) of North Yorkshire. But that was one event, requiring very specific overconfidence in a party of about 7, which killed 2. Or was it 3 ? When my club were planning to do that cave, we called off because of weather rendering it suicidal. Those conditions are not possible in Rising Star Cave - it's practically bone dry and building up a lethal concentration of CO2 naturally requires a water-sealed airbell. Sorry, but as a caver and a diver, I find this trope of Hollywood between hilarious and insulting. It's not helped by news-writers conflating events in mines (e.g., CO-poisoning by diesel engines) with events in caves

[@charleshartley9597]

Having taught human evolution a time or two at university, I am highly invested in this research. This is research history in the making! Thank you for such a well-scripted and presented video Erika!

[@Padraigp]

What do you think about them all being male or all being female?

[@charleshartley9597]

@@Padraigp I think the authors make a good argument that it is a single sex based on what she covered. As to what that might mean if there are only male or female remains, I couldn't say. As an archaeologist I'd need other artifacts found with them to even speculate (and I don't remember what else was found in the cave off the top of my head). Honestly, though, the site itself is… unusual. I have no doubt there were taphonomic changes to the cave, because it's now so hard to get to. Or, perhaps there is (or was) another entrance. I'd also be interested in some bioarchaeological research on if there is any damage (cut or tooth marks) to the bones, or if there are any signs of diet, starvation, or disease in the skeletal remains. Again, there may be some, I just don't know. Cheers!

[@Padraigp]

@@charleshartley9597 thank you i actually was not sure if she was saying it was a good arguement or a bad one for the bones being only one sex. So thanks for clearing that up. Yes it will be interesting to see what new testing shows. In jest...I think they just fecked the midgets down a hole cos they were so damn short! Im afraid im not your intellectual equal but thank you for the help understanding.

[@bsnow304]

I wish more papers were about "hey, look at the cool things we found" instead of trying to hype it up as the biggest thing since gravity

[@oopskapootz7276]

Agreed 100%. Sadly we wouldn’t be talking about it SO much if it wasn’t controversial. This extra attention translates to more money for them, which incentivizes the behavior. People should definitely be able to make money, but it hurts objectivity and is not good science.

[@CannibalMello]

This is all really fascinating. I'm currently working on figuring out what becoming human is all about, mostly from a psychological standpoint. Your channel is providing me with so. Much. Input. Thank you for all the work you do, and thank you for making it accessible to a wide audience.

[@rachelthompson9324]

I once head an anthropologist say about Clovis not being first, "It may be true, but I can't beleive it."

[@roscius6204]

The thing about language is that that could be taken as a foolish, unwillingness to accept fact or an expression of surprise

[@Anyreck]

Very nice approach, Delezene & Co! Great suspenseful breakdown of the ongoing Naledi investigations, Erika

[@karleybioanthro]

I’m pretty sure originally they found out the cave had a different opening at one point. I met one the archeologists and they mentioned that so I don’t know why this geological finding was thrown out? I’m confused.

[@margretrosenberg420]

As I recall they speculated about the possibility and then we didn't hear any more about it, but I could be wrong; it's been awhile.

[@karleybioanthro]

@@margretrosenberg420 I thought they published it in a paper too. Really weird. I’ll have to see if I can find it again.

[@margretrosenberg420]

@@karleybioanthro Good luck. Let us know if you find it.

[@a.karley4672]

The cave is a typical phreatic joint network, with more recent vadose modifications. But dating cave development is extremely difficult. My local cave systems in Yorkshire, we don't know if their dozens of levels of infill reflect events in the last glaciation, or the previous 4. Demonstrating an accurate stratigraphy for a cave system (and thence, dating events in it's development) is extremely difficult. If a "cave guide" told you "[something] took ten thousand years to form", that is almost always a pure guess (though often reprinted dozens of times). AIUI, some of the Naledi bones are "sealed" under layers of flowstone (which can be dated by Uranium-series dating), but other bones are in sediment layers above those dated flowstones. Which means the depositions were probably separated by at least a year. But beyond that, it is very hard to say because we don't have detailed rainfall records for the region in that time range. Relating events from within-cave sediments to the wider landscape - such as patterns of water sources and sinks, is even more fraught. It's not a well-studied area, because there's next to no money in it. And if you come up with results that challenge established water-use rights, everyone wants to sue you.

[@margretrosenberg420]

@@a.karley4672 Thanks; that's very helpful, even if I did have to look up a couple of the words (aren't dictionaries a marvelous invention?). Do you happen to have a date on the flowstone?

[@Elmer_Badly]

The statistical analysis is fascinating. It shows what can be done with only moderately sophisticated statistics and a great deal of creativity. I think my introductory stats students might almost be able to follow the logic, and I’m almost tempted to play the video or part of it in class, but, sadly, the paleoanthropology content would lose too many people. Thank you for a really interesting video and for keeping up with the Homo Naledi situation. Well done!!

[@jloubelle]

My brother’s response: well duh, they’re identical because they were cloned by aliens. 😂

[@jloubelle]

Oh! He has now amended his theory that Naledi worshipped the god of teeth and they had to carefully measure the teeth of their sacrifices to make sure their food would be pleased 😂😂

[@TheTrueUnbeliever]

You have a knack for a explaining statistical analysis in a way that a normal person can understand. Thank you!

[@Musix4me-Clarinet]

I think your suggestions for how they _might_ have cached their dead and there are other means by which they arrived where they appear are fair, my initial (and current) _feeling_ is that something clearly different from their explanation happened-I would not be disinclined to think fraud even.

[@Betsy.Ross76]

They said the bones had snail marks and another said lichen. Sun is needed for both those. Plus fossils plastered all along the cave... that's water. A baboon ...and "undisclosed number of rodents and birds". This was a fraud.

[@gabrielsoto3216]

I got to your channel after I watched the netflix documentary and wanted to know more about what was being said in academia. What a nice gift to find your videos, all so beautifully informative and enlightening. You're very charismatic, your big "huh??" just cracked me up! If you're ever in Brazil, let's have a beer!

[@sl1763]

“Adding a bit of bipedability ” isa new phrase for me.

[@sylviarogier1]

Thank you. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk about what is going on in your field.

[@freddiefreihofer7716]

Great segment! Actually, the correct Latin pronunciation of homo is haw-moe. The first o is short, the second long. From a professional Latinist (and fervent admirer of you and your work, Erika!). Also the word "genus" has a short e in the original Latin pronunciation, as in our word "set" or "pet". I do see that the Webster's II paperback dictionary marks the e as long, as in the way you pronounce it, so I guess you can take your pick!

[@helenr4300]

modern usage vs ancient phonetics is a loosing battle - and less than the matters in the vide0. Though thank you for corrections. My own Latin classes in school were very loose in pronounciation

[@Transblucency]

I know that pronunciation and grammar changed over time and across regions between different dialects of ancient Greek and even Koine had various fashionable and localized variations. Was this also the case to some degree with Latin, or did it maintain its integrity more effectively in terms of always looking towards Rome? I am fairly certain there would have been significant variance in dialects at the outer edges of the empire, but as the Romans were sticklers for uniformity and Rome remained the heart of the empire until its fall, I wouldn't be surprised if the Latin equivalent of the Atticists remained victorious in maintaining cohesiveness. Unlike Rome, Greece found itself with competing cultural centers and it is hard to talk about a Greek empire, until Alexander anyway

[@tomhalla426]

Church Latin, academic Latin, or reconstructions of Classic Latin?

[@Transblucency]

@@tomhalla426 I'm here to learn :)

[@molybdomancer195]

The words were Latin but now they belong to scientific English. I bet you insist that “decimate” means “kill one in ten” as well don’t you? Languages evolve.

[@LittleTreeBlue]

Thank you! I’ve been wanting a good explanation of the Naledi controversy because people keep referencing it without saying what the controversy actually is. Super useful!

[@LanceHall]

I was thinking inbred as well.

[@kaylasmith3070]

i literally just finished stress-binging your other h. naledi videos (because finals), this could not have come at a better time (:

[@CheezChopper]

Great video! I had a suggestion, but it's probably stupid. Could it be a place of sacrifice? We know from ancient civilizations that sacrificing maidens or virgins were quite a common thing. Maybe to appease some sort of ancient deity the Homo Naledi made up. I don't know if they were capable of that, intellectually. But I lean more to the incest line of reasoning. ...boy howdy that sounded weird reading it back. Great video Gutsick! ❤

[@caitlynnicholas990]

Cool paper, Delezene and Colleagues! 😅 Cool video, thanks Erika!