Recently, archaeologists found part of the skull of a young Homo naledi in a cave in South Africa. The Naledi, which are extinct, are in the Homo family tree but on a different branch than modern humans.

The remains of the skull were found about 12 meters from the Dinaledi cave area. This complex cave area is 2 km long and is also the location where the first Homo naledi was discovered in 2015.

The skeleton is believed to be that of a child between 4 and 6 years old, who died nearly 250,000 years ago. The discovery was published in the journal BBC Science Focus.

Professor Lee Berger, project leader and Director of the Center for the Discovery of Human History at Wits University, said: “Homo naledi is one of the most mysterious ancient human relatives ever discovered. This discovery adds to our understanding of who actually invented later cultures, or created complex stone tools.”

Researchers have named the skull ‘Leti’, which means “missing person” in Setswana, one of South Africa’s 11 official languages.

Ultimately, a skull was reconstructed from 28 skull fragments and 6 teeth, combining nearly 2,000 different fragments belonging to more than 20 Homo naledi individuals excavated in the Dinaledi cave system since 2013.

John Hawkins is a biological anthropologist and lead author of previous research on the fossilized skeleton of a male naledi nicknamed ‘Neo’ also found at the cave. “This is the richest hominin fossil site in Africa, and naledi is one of the best-known ancient hominin species ever discovered,” he said.

Leti’s body was located in an extremely difficult to reach place, in a narrow passage, only 15×80 cm long.

There were no obvious signs of injury on the skull, which left researchers unable to speculate on Leti’s cause of death.