Uriel Sinai/The New York Times)/Redux/Eyevine
The 21st century has so far been a golden age of hominin discovery. New species like the 7-million-year-old Sahelanthropus tchadensis and the 300,000-year-old Homo naledi have added to our understanding of humanity’s past. And the finds will keep coming.
“It doesn’t look like [we’re] sampling something that is running out,” says John Hawks at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “I think in part there’s a greater intensity of exploration right now.”
There’s a good chance that a new species will be revealed in 2018, with rumours swirling of two major finds that could answer many questions.
“Undoubtedly, the biggest gap is between 4 and 7 million years,” says Fred Spoor at University College London. “It’s a huge amount of time that’s so far represented by just a few bits and bobs.” Any hominins from that period are almost certainly new species, and could reveal the earliest stages of hominin