Check out this video, "homo naledi burial" share.google/WinNwiOxOVqJ...

Like our team, you get to be the first people in almost 2 million years to see the whole palate of the Holotype of Australopithecus sediba exposed - thanks Zandile!

For greater understanding of the importance of recognizing culture and complex behaviors in a small-brained hominin elifesciences.org/articles/89125 Our new paper out in elife

Very excited about new photographic scales from @nationalgeographic.bsky.social for archeologists, palaeontologists, photographers, geologists and forensic scientists! First Nat Geo Society scales ever! Enjoy!

A fantastic interview on eNCA news with Tebogo Makhubela celebrating his National Geographic #Wayfinder award! Well deserved and enjoy listening to the future of human origins research in #Africa - Tebogo is active on LinkedIn under Tebogo Vincent Makhubela follow him! www.enca.com/videos/wayfi...

www.facebook.com/share/1Ajo7V... here’s some fun one of @nationalgeographic.bsky.social latest explorers as a superhero!

The future of exploration and discovery in good hands in South Africa and across the planet! news.nationalgeographic.org/the-national... @nationalgeographic.bsky.social

I am proud to know you! Welcome to the yellow border, welcome to the family and sharing many great explorations, discoveries, scientific endeavours and moments of fun long into the future. Well done! Never Stop Exploring www.goodthingsguy.com/people/sa-sc... @nationalgeographic.bsky.social

Fossil fun day Monday

So many connections between star knowledge and ancient societies. Some have been embodied in monuments like Stonehenge, but the knowledge of they sky and its relation to natural and social cycles is vastly older. www.johnhawks.net/p/when-did-o...

Before Keneiloe Molopyane jumped into the work at Gladysvale - I did this video during Covid about the history behind this interesting site - good things are soon to be seen from the latest work at this site! www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-...

Take a look at this beautiful mandible from Swartrkans in South Africa - Skw 5. It’s what we presently call a Paranthropus robustus. Notice the “robust” mandible, large teeth and molarization of the premolars. What a lovely specimen of an ancient hominin likely between 1.5 and 2 million years old!

A long-form article, a lesson in why hiding fossils from colleagues and not using an open access/collaborative policies and leaving the privilege of working with original fossils only to a few is a historically bad idea for paleoanthropology www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

A new phylogeny published! Australopithecus sediba gives rise to X-Men (in the Marvel Universe at least). @marvel @marvelcomicshqs.bsky.social @marvelentertainment.tumblr.com.web.brid.gy #xmen #Sediba #fossil #phylogenetics #malapa

The Stw 431 pelvis is one of the few partial skeletons from Member 4 Sterkfontein. It has an unusual, flattened pelvis and is typically assigned to Australopithecus africanus and by various estimates thought to be around 2.3 million years old. #fossils #exploration #australopithecus #hominid

The Case for a Fluid View of Sex | Psychology Today www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/lies...

MH-2 was discovered on Sept 4, 2008 at the site of Malapa. The approximately 2 million year old hominin partial skeleton has produced perhaps the most complete undistorted shoulder arm and hand of any ancient fossil human relative yet discovered. #Malapa #fossils #paleoanthropology #sediba

As the @nationalgeographic.bsky.social #RisingStar team we are privileged to work in some of the most beautiful places on #earth this is the sort of view we have on a daily basis. Enjoy the beauty of #Africa and #exploration !

The Stw 505 skull was discovered in 1989 at the #Sterkfontein site, South Africa. It is one of the most complete skulls of an Australopithecus discovered and one with perhaps the largest cranial capacity of a “gracile” australopith. It is typically thought to be a male A. africanus

Dr Keneiloe Molopyane has emerged as a leader in human origins research in South Africa. Part of the 2nd generations of #Undergroundastronauts working in the Dinaledi subsystem of the Rising Star project, she was instrumental in identifying the 1st burials of Homo naledi.

From the weekend: Two newly-described Homo erectus-like skull fragments and other evidence of ancient behavior from the bottom of the Madura Strait, Indonesia. www.johnhawks.net/p/more-homin...

Trigger warning! Carnivorous dung beetles and a few #flies eating a #millipede alive. Do not watch if you are squeamish! Africa is not for the faint hearted.... #SouthAfrica #Dungbeetles #Africa #predators

Why we should never stop exploring!

Ginika Ramsawak is a South African PhD student you are going to hear a lot about in the near future. She is also pivotal to the new reconstruction of the MH-1 Holotype skeleton of #Australopithecus #sediba. Her work will synthesise the study of the new fossils of the Type specimen of #sediba.

MLD 10 is a fascinating piece of a #hominin cranium and skull impression recovered from #Makapansgat. Most authors assign it to Australopithecus africanus. It’s one of the few hominin remains from the early days of this field that still preserves the rock it was found in.

We are upgrading the #Malapa museum soon. Very exciting stuff to come! This video demonstrates that not only are the #hominin #fossils are famous from Malapa but so are some of the fauna - a tiny fox was used in the opening of Kong: Skull Island #kongskullisland ! Enjoy!

from @thedissenteryt.bsky.social #1093 Agustín Fuentes - Sex Is a Spectrum: The Biological Limits of the Binaryhttps://youtu.be/0xSU6z1IJV0?si=AkN3fXFZ7CFaGLYe

Descending into a bat-filled cave in southern Gabon. Most of these appeared to be of the Minniopterus and Hipposideros genera. The mountain thrums when your hand rests against rock as the move. The potential fossil bearing cave is made rather unpleasant by their excrement… #bats #Gabon #exploration

And a new paper just out. Grip matters. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A close up of the calculus and tartar on the teeth of MH-1 from #Malapa discovered because of a CT scan showing the hollow under the 1t and 2nd molars. A paper in @nature.com by Henry et al 2012 was done on the diet of #sediba as the dental calculus had plant phytoliths that could be identified

Dr Job Kibii and me in front of the first remains of MH-1 (Holotype of Australopithecus #sediba from #Malapa ) recovered during Aug-Dec 2008 and the first months of 2009.. The block in the middle contains the unprepared skull Over Job’s left shoulder one can see the MH-2 skeleton.

Take a look at this beautiful reel produced by mybteam - never stop exploring! www.facebook.com/share/v/1FMt...

Check out Matthew Berger featured in Voyage.La! Well done and very proud of you! voyagela.com/interview/ri...

In the continuing flashback series to the covid era videos I produced - here is the context of fossils and discoveries in east and southern Africa and the implications for interpreting the record of human origins. www.youtube.com/watch?v=3knm...

Were there #giants in the past? The Berg Aukus femur from #Namibia is undated, but highly fossilized. It is thought to be several hundreds of thousands of years old. It is among the largest fossil bones of a #hominin ever discovered. A great mystery! #fossils #exploration #mysteries

Sometimes the variation in #hominids is extraordinary. Take these two mandibles from #Sterkfontein. Do they represent a male and a female? Or is it just normal size variation? Or are they in fact two different species that share similar tooth morphology?

Since I did a compilation of images of the #TaungChild, here is a compilation of the “other” faces of fossils attributed to Australopithecus africanus. These #fossils are from #Sterkfontein (STS and STW) and #Makapansgat (MLD).

One of my favorite things about the current ancient DNA landscape of Neanderthal and Denisovan research is how it is normalizing the recognition of variability and diversity in these groups. One of my frustrations is the misconception of long, static isolation. www.johnhawks.net/p/surprising...

Refining my thoughts on "Culture as the Null Hypothesis" instead of "Natural as the Null Hypothesis"

One of the very first pictures (if not the first) ever taken in the Dinaledi Chamber. Taken by Steve Tucker and Rick Hunter on their first drop into the space. The image is clearly of a number of postcranial hominin remains. Yes, the scale says "For Home Sewing Aid Only"

This articulated hand skeleton is incredible. Tracy Kivell and I suggest it opens a small window to glimpse embryonic development and possibly even social behavior lawnchairanthropology.com/2024/12/05/t...

A brief narrated lidar tour from the top of the #chutelabyrinth in #RisingStar, through #Dragonsback up to the area of the command center showing the complexity of the space.

As you follow the wisdom to take only memories, leave only footprints in Nature, when conducting research on foreign soil go further. Strive to leave the place you work in better condition than how you found it. Invest in the sustainability of science in the places you practice science.