In 2013, a treasure trove of unusual fossils were uncovered in a cave in South Africa, and researchers soon realized: these were the remains of a new species of ancient humans. Paleoanthropologist Juliet Brophy takes us inside the discovery of Homo naledi, explaining how this mysterious ancestor is forcing us to rethink where we come from — and what it means to be human.
Get TED Talks recommended just for you! Learn more at .
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design — plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more.
Follow TED on Twitter:
Like TED on Facebook:
Subscribe to our channel:
New ancestors sounds like an oxymoron.
+ASMR JUNKIE
Which facts? The fact that all you see and touch were created?
+Punisher Lee
My friend we could discuss your opinion on how you know that until the sun burns out and all life on earth ceases to exist, and you still wouldn’t be any closer of proving it, also that’s called circular reasoning by you trying to prove the bible, while using the bible as evidence and if that’s the case then every other religion can also make such a claim by using their holy book. We all know they all cannot be right I’m sure you know that, but they all can wrong even yours my friend and I HOPE YOU KNOW THAT !!!
+Tim Williams people who blindly follow the manipulations of scripture do not attempt to engage their capacity for opinions. But good on you for giving him that much credit.
Yeah. It is lol
+Punisher Lee oxymoron , verbal evidence
I was surprised that she didn’t bring up the theory that Naledi buried their dead. I remember reading about this when they first announced the find and I believe the logic was that it would have been very unlikely for the bodies to end up the way they did in the cave system under natural causes. This could imply that they had some kind of culture but if I’m wrong please correct me.
Because at the current moment it’s just a possible explanation, not much evidence aside from the location of the bodies
+Keza Motlana Good point
It is very easy to get disoriented in a cave system. I did it last night. Luckily it was a small cave and I had a light, or three.
+Dennis Mitchell Wow please be careful lol Also I read up on it and they found multiple bodies pretty much stacked in so far two cambers deep in the cave. Since we know nothing about the species it is to early to assume they had some kind of burial ritual thing. It would be cool but more research is needed.
+Denis Gobbi I could imagine them sheltering in a cave when threatened by volcanic action and suffocating from volcanic ash, or something like that.
Why was it ever assumed a large brain is required for tool use anyway? Some birds use tools and they have tiny brains.
+writerconsidered Birds also (as much as one can with a beak and feet) make tools.
+1870 Preußen The utter lack of hands probably has something to do with that. Their behavior, the use of speech and social structure suggests their intelligence.
I think it’s just correlation. Humans evolve and brains get bigger and tools more complex, so clearly there is correlation, and a theory of causality is not far-fetched.
Also, I do not believe that we had knowledge of tool-using animals when these early theories formed.
These days we know that tailor birds sew leaves together with spiderweb, that crows modify sticks for intended use and that a species whose name eludes me cuts a tool from the side of leaves to use as a stick for a specific (again, I do not remember which) task.
Tyranosaurus Rex had a snmall brain yet the species survived for 75 milion years … they must have been doing something right.
1870 Preußen whales need fingers and thumb!
I appreciate her enthusiasm and her expertise!
Angela Sealana Female power!!!
+chamade166 omg
+chamade166 teen titans go
Really? She described her job as studying “fossils that are *thousands* and even millions of years old”
It takes tens of millions of years to make a fossil there is never been found a fossil that’s only a few thousand years old, because it’s impossible.
within the first 40 seconds of this video she’s proven a discredit to her herself and her entire field.
Yet you appreciate her expertise? LOL.
It’s always a good thing to change your theories, that’s how we learn.
+Thomas DoubtingWatchtower Comparing science to a cult or a religion or a belief system is like comparing dogs to cats, or shoes to gloves. They are two separate bodies, used for two very different things.
It’s not science’s position or requirement to “believe” anything. Science has the job of gathering facts. As new facts and new evidence are discovered, science’s views and understanding of the world change, grow, become more precise. Like when a child grows up and slowly finds out that the world is bigger than its mother’s arms…and then learns that the world is bigger than its crib…then learns it’s bigger than the house that it lives in… it goes on to learn about the world… the universe.. and so on. Each level of understanding is not a “lie.” It is only everything that the child knows at each level of understanding.
I am very happy that you managed to get away from the cult. did they hurt you? It is the cults motivation to manipulate and control people. If an objector finds evidence to the contrary of what the cult is claiming, the cult will do whatever it can to silence the objector.
But with science, if a person comes forward with evidence that shows a mistake in the theory, than that evidence is tested and if shown to be fact, the theory will be either changed, or a new one based on the new evidence will emerge. It is science’s job to disprove any and all theories. As time goes on, the theories that cannot be disproven tend to stand.
Science is not a “belief system” like religion, or cults. Science is a tool that we can use as a means to further understand our world. Always discovering. Always developing. Always looking for answers. Always willing to be wrong. Science is not static. Science is a never ending process.
We have different tools for different jobs. We have hammers for driving nails and we have screwdrivers for torquing screws. It would be ridiculous to use one for the other job.
I keep seeing science and spirituality butt heads and argue which side is the right side, but there is no “right side” because they don’t belong in the same arena. A person can believe in God and at the same time be a great scientist and a great critical thinker. Science has no business with spirituality.
+八神こう i really like your analogy for theory.. im not to bright so that made lots of sense..
From one lie to the next, that’s how liars speak to you.
+Thomas DoubtingWatchtower sounds like you’re still a follower, why not become educated and think for yourself?
+Thomas DoubtingWatchtower were you in elder scrolls cult
This is the best of science at display here. Constantly adapting and changing its pre-existing theories in order to better align with reality. No agenda other than to find the truth.
What do you mean no agenda?
Simply by seeking the truth, they are establishing an agenda that is opposed to anti-truth ideologies like religion.
If that’s what you wanna believe… *cough Paracas skulls *cough.
+Paul T Sjordal That would imply science is being done to spite religion instead of science for curiosity’s sake. Religious people only see it as an anti religious agenda because scientific truths and hypothesis incidentally cast doubt on religious beliefs, if they want to take that personally that’s on them.
+M. Vipsanius Agrippa NEVER argue with an idiot, listeners can’t tell which is which .
alphabet.soup you are confusing layman version of theory with hypothesis. Scientific theory is not the same as layman theory. In science theory is the pinnacle of science.
son: dad, mom said we’re ape.
dad: that’s from your mother side, not me
Hilarious!!!
Imagine being dead for 250,000 years and some lady digs you out of your grave just to call you “small brained individual” in front of an audience.
Hopefully some one will.
Lmao!
Rasta Pants ……hilarious !!
Rasta Pants Yeah, what a jerk! Lol
That joke made me laugh so hard.
Incredible work by the paleoanthropologists. Fascinating stuff.
She somehow reminds me a lot of Amy Farah-Fowler.
thorium222 when Amy went to a fancy dress party as Bernadette…..
Yesterday I tried buzzing into my apartment building using my credit card instead of my key fob.
Perhaps I’m a direct descendant ?
Man, LSU gets to spend *all* the money…
I often wonder what the world would look like had we found science before religion.
Religion attempts to prove itself correct. Science attempts to prove itself wrong. Thank “god” both are failing exponentially.
174 people gave this video a thumbs down, because they think “gawd dun did it!”
The Chinese almost did. Though they didn’t invent science as we know it or the scientific method, they nonetheless created an essentially atheistic nature of enquiry based on pragmatic philosophy that probably paid no small part in the subsequent precocious rise of their civilisation. In contrast, with a few exceptions, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern societies were for the most part hobbled by thinking based on Abrahamic religion arising in the Bronze age.
When I was in middle school, I had the impression that modern human understood just about everything… the older I get, the more I realize just how little we actually know.
That’s what the indoctrination system does to you. Tell you half truths and even lies with full confidence. I had to relearn so much about european history (where I am from) after school, it broke the world view my schooling established.
Very nicely presented. It does beg the question of how accurate many earlier assumptions may be which are based upon limited fossil records, eg a jawbone only.
Im gonna uninstall youtube because I CANT watch ads. I get SICK from them. Bye bye youtube…
So they were wrong and now they admit it – “and new we know” … until we find out we are wrong again ! It is a suspiciously super plastic theory !
Shout out to my people who yelled “ALIENS!” at their screens at some point during the conclusion.
If your findings fit the preexisting narrative it is welcomed. However, if your findings contradicts or outright destroys the narrative, then it is shelved to never see the light of day. Don’t dare sharing it or your career is over. I believe that they are onto something, but to claim that they have cracked the mystery of human origins it’s not accurate. A simple discovery of a bone changes the narrative by millions of years and we’re supposed to just sit back and agree with everything.