Homo naledi had a brain one-third the size of humans but displayed intelligence far beyond, according to new discovery
根据新的发现，纳莱迪人拥有三分之一人类大小的大脑，但表现出的智力远超其大脑大小

Bigger brains may not equate to higher intelligence after all, according to a remarkable discovery about an early hominin.
根据一项关于早期古人类的显著发现，较大的大脑可能并不等同于更高的智力。

Homo naledi, a hominin discovered in the Rising Star cave system in Africa's Cradle of Humankind in 2013, had human-like hands and feet but a brain a third of the size of humans -- a characteristic researchers previously attributed to a marker of far less intelligence than its Homo sapien relatives.
纳莱迪人是 2013 年在非洲人类摇篮的升星洞穴系统中发现的一种古人类，具有类似人类的手和脚，但大脑只有人类的三分之一大——研究人员此前将这一特征归因于其智力远低于智人亲属的标志。

But the assertion that bigger brains make for a smarter species may have been disestablished now that scientists have made a harrowing journey into the Rising Star cave and discovered that the species -- which lived about 335,000 to 236,000 years ago -- buried its dead and marked the graves. It is the first non-human species in history known to do so, paleoanthropologist and National Geographic Explorer in Residence Lee Berger told ABC News.
但是，随着科学家们对 Rising Star 洞穴进行了一次惊险的探险，并发现这个生活在大约 335,000 到 236,000 年前的物种埋葬了它们的死者并标记了坟墓，关于更大的大脑造就更聪明的物种的断言可能已经被推翻。历史上已知的第一个这样做的非人类物种，古人类学家兼国家地理驻地探险家李·伯杰告诉 ABC 新闻。

The researchers began to hypothesize that Homo naledi buried its dead during continued excavations in 2018 and in July 2022, those hunches were not only proven but amplified once Berger and his team found skeletal remains of Homo naledi and then carvings on the wall above them to mark those laid to rest there.
研究人员在 2018 年的持续挖掘中开始假设纳莱迪人会埋葬死者，而在 2022 年 7 月，这些猜测不仅被证实，而且在伯杰及其团队发现纳莱迪人的骨骼遗骸后得到了进一步的加强，然后在他们上方的墙壁上发现了标记那些安葬在那里的雕刻。

The symbols included triangles, squares and a sort-of "hashtag" sign, as in two cross-hatching equal signs, Berger said. However, it is unclear what these carvings meant, and researchers will be delving into whether there is a "random chance" that Homo naledi used the same symbols as humans or if they were obtained from some sort of shared ancestry.
这些符号包括三角形、正方形和一种类似“井号”的符号，如两个交叉的等号，伯杰说。然而，这些雕刻的含义尚不清楚，研究人员将深入研究是否存在一种“随机机会”，即纳莱迪人使用与人类相同的符号，或者它们是否来自某种共同的祖先。

It is unclear whether there was any interaction between Homo naledi and Homo sapiens, which would have existed at the same time about 250,000 year ago. Researchers are continuing to work on the molecular biology of the remains to determine whether there are similarities to humans.
目前尚不清楚纳莱迪人和智人之间是否有过任何互动，这两者大约在 25 万年前同时存在。研究人员正在继续研究这些遗骸的分子生物学，以确定是否与人类有相似之处。

The finding was "striking" and "shocking" and erases the idea of human exceptionalism -- that humans are different than animals and special due to their big brains. Homo naledi had brains about the size of a chimpanzee, and yet practiced ritual burials, a behavior previously assumed was only done by humans, Berger said.
这一发现“引人注目”和“令人震惊”，并消除了人类例外论的观念——即人类因其大脑而与动物不同且特殊。伯杰表示，纳莱迪人拥有与黑猩猩相当大小的大脑，但却进行仪式性埋葬，这种行为此前被认为只有人类才会进行。

Scientists also learned that Homo naledi had fire as well the kinds of animals they ate based on the location of bones found in the cave and the chambers adjacent to them, Berger said, adding that researchers knew nothing about the behavior of the species before the discovery. They may have even been placing artifacts in graves with the bodies.
科学家们还了解到，纳莱迪人使用火，并根据在洞穴及其相邻洞室中发现的骨头位置，了解他们所吃的动物种类，伯杰说。他补充说，研究人员在发现之前对该物种的行为一无所知。他们甚至可能将文物与尸体一起放入坟墓中。

"Suddenly we went from having just these wonderful anatomy lesson of a species to an entire culture," Berger said.
“突然之间，我们从仅仅拥有这个物种的精彩解剖课变成了拥有整个文化，”伯杰说。

The species is characterized by their pin-headed and tall, skinny bodies that appear to not match the time period in which they lived.

"They looked like they should have lived millions of years ago, but they were actually existing 250,000 to 350,000 years ago, the same time modern humans are evolving," Berger said.

It is also unclear when Homo naledi went extinct -- one of the many reasons why Homo naledi is still what Berger describes as a "wonderfully enigmatic" species.

"It was an extraordinary scientific moment, and one that's going to lead to science and exploration and more discoveries over the next decades," Berger said.

While Rising Star is one of the most well-known caves in the Cradle of Humankind, declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999, it has only been explored by dozens of people. But those amateur cavers -- and some professionals -- never discovered the true wonders of what the cave contained.

After creating a map of the cave in 2008, Berger discovered a "narrow, shoot-like labyrinth" that led to the chamber where the bones were found.

Berger had to lose 55 pounds to fit into the cave, which measured at just 7.5 inches wide in the slot he had to slide into to access the cave and 11 to 12 inches at the widest points. The cave cannot be widened because it could jeopardize the integrity of the structure and do damage to any artifacts and remains below.

The 40-foot journey down the pitch black shoot was "torture," requiring difficult maneuvering of the body -- so much so that Berger dislocated his shoulder and tore his rotator cuff at one point when he got stuck. It took him about 15 minutes to get down and over an hour to get back out, he said. There was no way to use equipment to aid in the passage.

Berger was not able to make it into the chamber with the carvings, a task left to his colleagues with smaller builds. He is still getting physical training and can't lift his right arm up all the way.

"But it was worth every moment of it," he said.

Berger was also involved in the findings that led to the discovery of Australopithecus sediba in 2008 at the Malapa site, also in the cradle of Africa. Australopithecus sediba lived between 1.977 and 1.98 million years ago.

Read more about the discovery at NatGeo.com.

National Geographic and ABC News share the same parent company, The Walt Disney Company.