Homo naledi: Geology of a Claimed Missing Link

[Garland-Green]

by Tim Clarey, Ph.D. *


Recent claims of a transitional species named Homo naledi have the anthropologic world in an uproar.1-3 National Geographic used this recent discovery as this month's cover story, and NOVA recently broadcast a television special, showcasing the finding for the world.3 The new fossil "species" is said to be a human-like ancestor that neatly fills the gap between the Australopithecus and our own genus Homo.1,3 This seemingly fits the human evolution story promulgated since the 19th century, but what are these bones really?

Three important questions must be answered before we can reach a conclusion: First, is the claimed hominin a newly discovered transitional species between man and ape? Second, what is the actual age of these fossils? And finally, how did the fossils get deep inside the cave? All of these questions have implications for the Christian community no matter what side of the issue they favor.

The fossil discovery, made in the Rising Star cave system in South Africa in 2013, is located in a remote section of the cave called Dinaledi Chamber. To reach this chamber, the scientists had to travel through two thin passageways, one less than 10 inches high.3 These caves developed in part of the Malmani Subgroup, a dolomite (limestone-like) rock unit most likely deposited before Noah's Flood. Secular scientists date the cave system in the rocks as developing during the Pliocene-Pleistocene, assigning ages as high as 3 million years.2 However, creation scientists interpret caves like these as forming either during the receding water phase of the Flood or right after the Flood, making the caves only thousands of years old.

Approximately 1,550 scattered hominin bone pieces, claimed to represent at least 15 individuals, were recovered from the clay-rich sediment of the cave floor. This fossil assemblage included infants, juveniles, adults, and mature adults. The secular scientists claimed that all these fragments are from a single, new species they named Homo naledi.1 Interestingly, the cave had also been entered by a previous caving group who rearranged some of the bones on the cave floor.2

What exactly is Homo naledi? Berger, the lead researcher, and his colleagues claimed that the bones all fit one new transitional, or "mosaic," species.1 A transitional species should show partly evolved, in-between features of the two species it supposedly bridges. No fossil evidence for an undisputed transitional species exists anywhere for any kind of creature. A supposed mosaic species has features resembling unrelated kinds, but are all somehow integrated. Homo naledi's feet, legs, and hands were nearly human, and yet the pelvis and shoulders were more like Australopithecus—an extinct ape. Steve Churchill from Duke University told National Geographic, "If you'd found the foot by itself, you'd think some Bushman had died."3 Berger and his staff even claimed to identify females and males, based on differences in the sizes of the bones.

Also, the cranium pieces didn't seem to fit the jaws. Despite what artistic depictions show, no substantially complete skulls were found with jaw and cranium attached. Instead, they found "tiny little brains stuck on these bodies that weren't tiny," as Fred Grine, paleoanthropologist, noted.3 All of these unusual sizes and mixtures of human and ape-like traits indicate that the bones may not even match. Presumed males and females may have come from different species. Could these paleontologists have fabricated a new species by cobbling together parts from unrelated kinds? Did they use the imaginings of their expectations to drive them to put the pieces together? If so, it wouldn't be the first time.4

However, what made this discovery unusual was the relatively loose and un-cemented sediment in which the bones were found. All of the bones were found in the upper 20 cm (8 inches) of cave-filling, floor sediment.2 One recent geological report said, "Hominin remains in the area are generally encased in lithified clastic sediments [weathered debris cemented together] in caves that are situated in stromatolite-rich [fossil algae mats] dolomite of the Malmani Subgroup."2 In other words, hardened sedimentary rocks encase most of these fossils, including Lee Berger's 2008 discovery of Australopithecus sediba only 10 miles away. That ape-like fossil was dated by secular scientists as two million years old.3,5 Finding these "naledi" fossils in un-cemented loose sediment implies these fossils may be far more recently deposited than most other finds, opening up the possibility they date to the post-Flood Ice Age and making Homo naledi only about 4,000 years old!

The next article on this topic will examine inconsistencies with evolutionary age assignments.

References

Berger, L. R., et al. Homo naledi, a new species of the genus Homo from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa. eLife. Posted on elifesciences.org September 10, 2015, accessed October 1, 2015.
Dirks, P.H.G.M. et al. Geological and taphonomic context for the hominin species Homo naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa. eLife. Posted on elifesciences.org September 10, 2015, accessed October 1, 2015.
Shreeve, J. 2015. Mystery man: A trove of fossils found deep in a South African cave adds a baffling new branch to the human family tree. National Geographic. 228(4): 30-57.
Gish, D. 1975. Man...Apes...Australopithecines...Each Uniquely Different. Acts & Facts. 4 (9).
Although secular science interprets these bones as 2 million years old, they were likely deposited late in the Flood year, making them about 4,500 years old.
Image credit: Copyright © 2015 National Geographic Society. Art by S. Fichtel. Sources: L. Berger and P. Schmid University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa; J. Hawks, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Adapted for use in accordance with federal copyright (fair use doctrine) law. Usage by ICR does not imply endorsement of copyright holder.

*Dr. Clarey is Research Associate at the Institute for Creation Research and received his Ph.D. in geology from Western Michigan University.

Article posted on October 15, 2015.

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[Garland-Green]

Homo naledi: Dating the Strange Ape
by Tim Clarey, Ph.D. *
Evidence for Creation

In the first of our three articles on this news-grabbing subject, we pointed out some strange circumstances surrounding the geology of the cave systems in which Homo naledi was discovered, as well as critical mismatches in bony body parts. Click here to read that article. This second article exposes a strange lack of evolutionary dating methods. Why has lead researcher Lee Berger, who is touring the world touting these fossils, not performed even one of several standard dating methods for fossils?

The scientists have not published any definitive ages for Homo naledi.1-3 However, they seem to be assuming an age of around 2 to 2.5 million years or older—right where it needs to be for the story of human evolution.3 But this age estimate is not based on any empirical information.2

What can they do to determine the age of these bones? First, they can use the uranium-series dating technique. Researchers employing this method measure the amount of trapped uranium in flowstone deposits and compare it to an assumed flowstone deposition rate, deriving an assumed absolute age of the cave flowstone.4,5 For example, this technique gave another hominin-bearing cave in South Africa named Gladysvale Cave an age of 540,000 to 7,000 years.4 Team member Paul Dirks and his colleagues analyzed the flowstone in the Dinaledi Chamber using this uranium-lead dating method, but claimed the process was contaminated from "fine dusting of a detrital component derived from associated muds."2 Contrary to common scientific practice, they never reported the results of this "failed" dating attempt. This conclusion seems oddly convenient, as a date range matching their age assumptions would have almost certainly been reported.

Why haven't they tried basic carbon-14 dating? Instead, it appears they assume the bones are simply too old to contain measurable amounts of carbon-14.6 Finding no carbon-14 left in the bones would help their case by eliminating all age assignments 100,000 years or younger. In contrast, detectable carbon-14 would demonstrate a youthful age for the bones—but that would place Homo naledi alongside species of modern humans.

The researchers could also have used electron spin resonance (ESR) dating that other evolutionists use for tooth enamel in similar settings.7 Berger's team found 179 dental crowns in the cave—plenty of teeth to have employed this method. But no test was conducted.2

It seems they don't really want an absolute age for these bones. Why wouldn't a team of high-profile, cutting edge scientists use every dating and testing method at their disposal to help clarify exactly what these specimens are and therefore what they truly represent? Instead, it appears the researchers are telling us what they think the fossils are.

If the scientists determined an age in the thousands of years or even the ten-thousands of years ranges, it would keep naledi out of the larger evolutionary story and glorious spotlight of public attention—and especially funding, the holy grail of many research scientists. Worse, an age of thousands of years would clearly expose these fossils merely as man-made mosaics of different species, and not an evolutionary transition. In other words, it would nullify their find.

In the next and last article, we will expose some curious oddities about the cave and claims of ritualistic burial of Home naledi.

References

Berger, L. R. et al. Homo naledi, a new species of the genus Homo from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa. eLife. Posted on elifesciences.org September 10, 2015, accessed September 15, 2015.
Dirks, P.et al. Geological and taphonomic context for the hominin species Homo naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa. eLife. Posted on elifesciences.org September 10, 2015, accessed September 15, 2015.
Shreeve, J. 2015. Mystery man: A trove of fossils found deep in a South African cave adds a baffling new branch to the human family tree. National Geographic. 228(4): 30-57.
Pickering, R. et al. 2007. Stratigraphy, U-Th chronology, and paleoenvironments at Gladysvale Cave: insights into the climatic control of South African hominin-bearing cave deposits. Journal of Human Evolution. 53 (5): 602-619.
Pickering, R. et al. 2011. Contemporary flowstone development links early hominin bearing cave deposits in South Africa. Earth and Planetary Sciences Letters. 306 (1): 23-32.
Bascomb, B. Archaeology's Disputed Genius. Nova Next. Posted on pbs.org September 10, 2015, accessed October 4, 2015.
Grün, R. 1989. Electron spin resonance (ESR) dating. Quaternary International. 1: 65-109.
Image credit: Copyright © 2015 National Geographic Society. Sources: L. Berger and P. Schmid University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa; J. Hawks, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Adapted for use in accordance with federal copyright (fair use doctrine) law. Usage by ICR does not imply endorsement of copyright holder.

*Dr. Clarey is Research Associate at the Institute for Creation Research and received his Ph.D. in geology from Western Michigan University.

Article posted on October 19, 2015.

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[Garland-Green]

Homo naledi: Claims of a Transitional Ape
by Tim Clarey, Ph.D. *

Our first article on Homo naledi addressed questions about the anatomy and geologic setting of these fossils. Our second asked why these scientists chose to not date the fossils. This third and final article explores the question of how the fossils arrived in such a remote part of the cave. This may be the toughest of the three questions to answer.

The amount of flowstone has obviously grown and reduced the volume of the cave in the last few thousand years. Perhaps this change narrowed the passageways in and out. Just how open the cave was at the time these bones were emplaced is hard to estimate. Among the fossils the researchers found a wide mixture of specimen sizes, none of which had any signs of predation.1 Only a few birds and a rodent were found with the hominin bones.2

Berger and his team think the hominin bones were deliberately placed there by living Homo naledi in some sort of burial ritual.2 He told National Geographic, "Disposal of the dead brings closure for the living and confers respect. Such sentiments are a hallmark of humanity. But H. naledi was not human."3 However, the long convoluted path to ritually bury these remains makes this interpretation unlikely, and others disagree with Berger's interpretation. Richard Leakey believes they probably washed in, telling National Geographic, "There has to be another entrance."3

Whether or not there was another cave entrance, or if the flowstone has since restricted the passageways and openings, the mystery of how the bones ended up in the deep cave chamber will likely not be easily resolved. In a technical article published in eLife, Dirks and his colleagues described sedimentary evidence in the cave floor that suggests periods of higher water flow rates in the cave.2 It is possible that flash-flooding of the larger chamber drowned the humans and animals taking refuge in the cave and transported their remains to the back of the cave system. Whether or not the ape-like bones were transported at the same time as the humans is unclear since subsequent flooding may have mixed them around. The bones are not laid out in any organized manner, but are well dispersed.2

The scattering of these bones within only the upper eight inches of sediment in the cave floor suggests the emplacement of these bones occurred relatively recently. This may have occurred during the beginning of the post-Flood period, and possibly during the Ice Age, when water levels and climate fluctuations would have been more dramatic and sporadic. The Bible indicates this took place just a few thousand years ago.4

The geology, anatomy, lack of dating, and evidence of recent water action reveal that the media blitz and excitement over Homo naledi is essentially based on a falsehood. It appears the secular scientific community continues their predecessors' search to find a "missing link" and establish what they have already decided to believe: that our human race came from apes, not Adam.

These scattered fossils are most likely young, just thousands of years old, and deposited post-Flood. They show no indication of any evolution. The claimed new species appears to be a mosaic of different species put together based on evolutionary biases, not scientific evidence. The scientists built an imaginary creature from bones that likely come from both humans and non-humans.

In any case, claims of ritualistic burial are premature at best and story-serving at worst. God clearly tells us in Genesis 1:26 that He made man in His image, giving mankind dominion over all other animals. He did not make creatures that were "almost human," and no evidence—including that from Homo naledi—has so far refuted this.

References

Berger, L. R. et al. Homo naledi, a new species of the genus Homo from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa. eLife. Posted on elifesciences.org September 10, 2015, accessed October 1, 2015.
Dirks, P. et al. Geological and taphonomic context for the hominin species Homo naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa. eLife. Posted on elifesciences.org September 10, 2015, accessed September 15, 2015.
Shreeve, J. 2015. Mystery man: A trove of fossils found deep in a South African cave adds a baffling new branch to the human family tree. National Geographic. 228 (4): 30-57.
Jake *********, Ph.D. 2013. Was There an Ice Age? Acts & Facts. 42 (12): 20.
Image Credit: Copyright © 2015 National Geographic Society. Art by J. Foster. Source: L. Berger, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Adapted for use in accordance with federal copyright (fair use doctrine) law. Usage by ICR does not imply endorsement of copyright holder.

*Dr. Clarey is a Research Associate at the Institute for Creation Research.

Article posted on October 22, 2015.

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