Independent dating techniques have established that the H. naledi fossils are between 236 and 335 thousand years old, indicating that small-brained hominins with relatively primitive body shapes co-existed with our early ancestors in Africa.

A new hominin species found in a South African cave is part of one of the most unusual hominin fossil assemblages on record.

Newly recovered lumbar vertebrae belonging to Malapa Hominin 2, an adult female of the fossil hominin species Australopithecus sediba, demonstrate that this individual was adapted to upright posture and bipedal locomotion but also had adaptations for climbing in trees.