Cradle of Humankind

Hills in the Cradle of Humankind

In April of 2018, the biannual South African Society of Microbiology wad held at Misty Hills Hotel (www.mistyhills.co.za) hotel in the “Cradle of Humankind". The “Cradle of Humankind” (www.thecradleofhumankind.net) is an area just outside of Johannesburg. It is called the "Cradle of Humankind because of the huge number of early humanoid fossils. One of the earliest fossil find was at the Sterkfontein cave system by Prof Robert Broom was in in 1947. This fossil was given the name of Mrs Ples. She (in 2017 it was decided that “she” is actually a “he”) is classified as an Austrolpithecus africanus. This is the earliest of the hominid fossils which have been found in the world.

Getting ready to explore the caves

The caves in this area are owned by the University of the Witwatersrand. I did my first three degrees at Wits and my undergraduate course included Zoology. One of the courses I did was paleontology (study of fossils). As a student at Wits we visited Sterkfontein caves and also had the opportunity to visit cave systems which are not open to the public. There are literally mountains of fossils in these caves. Animals and early humans would fall into the caves and die. Under some of the openings of the cave system to the top, there are piles of fossils. Obviously the lower levels of the piles of fossils include the older species.

Inside the cave

Into the caves

Another major find in the area was the fossil, Homo naledi in 2013 but only made public in 2015. This is regarded as an early humanoid fossil which is probably the closest relative to Homo sapiens (us!). The discovery of the fossil remains of Homo naledi was remarkable in that it is a complete skeleton. In fact, 9 complete fossil skeletons were found in the Rising star cave system which is not open to the environment and very difficult to get to. The current hypothesis is that this was an ancient burial site. If this hypothesis is true, this has very far reaching implications on our understanding of the  the evolution of early humans.

There are a number of cave systems in the area. The most visited is the Sterkfontein cave. This is a nice cave although there are a few quite narrow places to get through. There are some very nice formations in the cave and of course there have been a few fossils found in the cave. There is also an underground lake in the cave. It is believed that this lake continues for many kilometres  underground. Some even say hundreds of kilometres!  In 1984, a scuba diver lost his life exploring this underground lake. A very sad story. It is believed that he died only hours before he was found. He was trapped in the cave for 2 weeks.

Almost human? Need I say more?

Most of the tours to the cave include a combination ticket with the caves and the new museum at Maropeng. The first part of the museum is dedicated to the Homo naladi discovery and the actual fossil remains are on display. There is also an underground part to the museum. This has really been very well done. On the way down, you go along a circular path on which the events of evolutionary time is mapped out to scale. You then go on a boat ride on an "underground" river. This leads you to a very large display area where the main focus is on human evolution. Casks of the most famous humid fossil skulls are on display. There is also a really great display on the movement of the continents.

Early earth

This is a great day trip for anyone from Joburg. Very informative and enjoyable.