For the first time, archaeologists have analyzed the genetic material of Homo naledi, a mysterious 300,000-year-old relative of modern humans discovered deep in a South African cave system. What they found is unique in human evolution studies: Every skeleton known from the species is female.
"I think it is fair to say that they surprised us," Lee Berger, a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, told Live Science in an email, but H. naledi "has always been an enigmatic discovery."
