A group of scientists announced Thursday what they say is the discovery of an extinct early ancestor of humans.

The researchers, who published their findings in the journal eLIFE, call the new species Homo naledi. They said it likely walked upright, stood about 1.5 meters tall and weighed 45 kilograms. They also described the hands and feet as human-like, but said the ribcage, shoulders and pelvis were closer to other early ancestors than to those of modern humans.

The discovery is the result of finding a collection of bones in a hard-to-reach section of cave at the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site outside of Johannesburg, South Africa.

The roughly 1,500 bones recovered so far at the site belong to at least 15 individuals, the researchers said. They believe Homo naledi emerged between 2.5 million and 2.8 million years ago, but the bones found at the site might be younger than that. The team said dating the bones is one of their next challenges.

Also unclear is why the bones were in the remote part of the cave in the first place. Scientists speculated others could have placed dead bodies there in a type of behavior rarely found in early humans.
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