New Delhi, India

Back in June of this year, a team of researchers made sensational claims about a small-brained ancient hominid known as Homo naledi. The alleged discovery by the research team led by Professor Lee Berger of the University of Witwatersrand excited the scientific community to no end. 

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The findings, if proven accurate, could overturn much of what we know about human evolution. However, a recent paper has ridiculed the "discovery". 

What the team claimed to have discovered

Dr Berger and his team claimed to have found evidence that the long-extinct species buried its dead and decorated their graves with abstract markings.

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Given that the species had a brain no larger than a chimpanzee's, this finding at the time suggested intelligence similar to modern humans. 

Also read | Not homo sapiens but this extinct human species buried their dead first

This could be the oldest evidence of burials by the human species. The discovery as reported by the team was made in South Africa's Rising Star Cave System.

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New research rebuts Berger's findings

A new study has pooh-poohed the Homo naledi-mania and suggests that the small-brained human ancestors may have nothing to do with the burials or marking of graves.

The research which has been published in the Journal of Human Evolution suggests that instead of it being chalked up to a deliberate disposal of the dead, some natural processes may explain the findings better.

Researchers from Spain and Australia suggest that things like a natural death trap or the bones being transported inside the narrow cave via flowing or flood waters may be a better explanation. According to them, an ancient member of the species may also have carried the remains into the cave or they could be there because of carnivore activity.

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To back their hypothesis, they cite geological, taphonomic and paleontological evidence.

They also say that the caves where the bones of more than 15 Homo naledi individuals representing all age groups were found were too unreachable. This meant that other researchers could not enter the caves and verify Berger's findings.

It also pours cold water on the alleged centuries-old engravings and says that Berger's teams have used any scientific methods to date them. They conclude that the Rising Star team has built a "persuasive discourse" which is "misleading" and that "they do not test their hypothesis but selectively report the evidence that supports their preferred scenario."

(With inputs from agencies)