Almost Human: The Astonishing Tale of Homo naledi and the Discovery That Changed Our Human Story

By Kaia Hilson | March 23 2017 | General

The remains of a Homo erectus skull. From Almost Human by Lee Berger

The remains of a Homo erectus skull.

In 2013, Lee Berger, a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, caught wind of a cache of bones in a hard-to-reach underground cave in South Africa. He put out a call around the world for petite collaborators—men and women small and adventurous enough to be able to squeeze through 8-inch tunnels to reach a sunless cave 40 feet underground. With this team of “underground astronauts,” Berger made the discovery of a lifetime: hundreds of prehistoric bones, including entire skeletons of at least 15 individuals, all perhaps two million years old. Their features combined those of known prehominids like Lucy, the famous Australopithecus, with those more human than anything ever before seen in prehistoric remains. Berger’s team had discovered an all new species, and they called it Homo naledi.

Learn more about the discovery here.

9781426218118
Like Donald Johanson's Lucy, this first-person narrative about an archaeological discovery is rewriting the story of human evolution. A story of defiance and determination by a controversial scientist, this is Lee Berger's own take on finding Homo naledi, an all-new species on the human family tree and one of the greatest discoveries of the 21st century.
$26.00 US
May 09, 2017
Hardcover
240 Pages
National Geographic
World