Homo naledi had brains one-third the size of humans but were capable of complex thought. The Homo naledi species is still new and mysteriousH. naledi is a pretty new addition to the family tree of hominins, which includes our direct ancestors and other extinct relatives who walked on two legs. Researchers analyze fossils of Homo naledi at the University of the Witwatersrand's Evolutionary Studies Institute in Johannesburg. But those species still had big brains — unlike H. naledi, whose burials would raise further questions about human evolution, Stringer said. For study author Agustin Fuentes, an anthropologist at Princeton University, the H. naledi evidence takes the focus off brain size.

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Persons: Homo naledi, —, naledi, they've, Lee Berger, Robert Clark, AP Berger, John Hawks, Lee Berger's, Megan, Rick Hunter, Berger, sapiens, Chris Stringer, we've, Stringer, Agustin Fuentes, Fuentes, Rick Potts, Potts Organizations: Service, National Geographic Society, University of, Evolutionary Studies, Geographic, AP, University of Wisconsin, Princeton University Locations: South Africa, Johannesburg, Madison, Witwatersrand