Scientists in South Africa have claimed a discovery they believe could force us to rethink some fundamentals of what it means to be human.
that the creatures were able to make fire and use it as a tool, based on charcoal and burn remnants they found in the cave.
"It's dark, it's dangerous, it's difficult. They're going hundreds of meters back in here, down chutes and into little spaces, and one of the great dilemmas has been, how? Were they just lost? Were the bodies in here because they got lost and can't find their way out? But why only them, and why in these spaces?"
Berger eventually put himself on a strict diet and lost 55 pounds to be able to go into the caves himself. He told CBS News it was the toughest challenge of his 30-year career. But once he sat down on a ledge deep underground, looked up and saw the telltale signs of fire all over the cave ceiling and walls, he said it was worth it.
Professor Lee Berger walks inside the Rising Star cave system in The Cradle of Human Kind, near Johannesburg, South Africa, May 11, 2023, as he uses his light checking for the presence of fossils in the Dolomite rock which composes the cave."It was the most horrible thing I've ever done in my life. And the best thing," he said, admitting that he didn't plan to go back down.
Berger said he expected his team to be accused of rushing to publish their research before a peer review was completed. He argued that, in the age of modern technology and social media, it was worth making all their findings available immediately, to be built upon by the scientists of tomorrow.
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