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The Underground Astronauts is the name given to a group of six scientists, Hannah Morris, Marina Elliott, Becca Peixotto, Alia Gurtov, K. Lindsay (then Eaves) Hunter, and Elen Feuerriegel, who excavated the bones of Homo naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber of the Rising Star cave system in Gauteng, South Africa. The six women were selected by the expedition leader, Lee Rogers Berger, who posted a message on Facebook asking for scientists with experience in paleontological excavations and caving, and were slender enough for cramped spaces. Within ten days of the post, Berger had received almost sixty applicants and chose six scientists to make up his expedition team.

The Rising Star Expedition

In November 2013, the National Geographic Society and the University of the Witwatersrand funded an expedition called the Rising Star Expedition for a twenty-one day excavation at the Rising Star cave system in Gauteng, followed by a second expedition in March 2014 for a 4-week excavation in the Dinaledi Chamber. The first expedition retrieved 1,550 pieces of bone belonging to at least fifteen individuals, found within 1 m of clay-rich sediments. Out of the fossil assemblage found, only twenty bones in the human anatomy were not found in the assortment.

The six scientists had to pass through three points of difficult terrain in the cave to reach the bone chamber. The first is referred to as "Superman's Crawl," which required one arm held forward to pass, similar to Superman's flight. They then had to climb vertically up a rock surface, known as the "Dragon's back," and finally pass through a slender opening and descend 30 meters into the Dinaledi chamber. Because of the difficulty of the expedition and their exploration of the Dinaledi Chamber, the six women were given the name "the Underground Astronauts."

Controversy

Berger's methods in selecting his research team were criticized by some contemporaries. Because of how he called for applicants via social media to investigate new hominin remains, some experts questioned the legitimacy and professionalism of the expedition. He used a similar process when it came time to analyze the recovered remains, once again sending out a call online for those interested in analyzing the remains, specifically looking for early career applicants. Berger was given the nickname "Mr. Paleodemocracy" because of his methods. Some experts began to view the expedition as a media stunt, as the excavation process was documented via daily blog posts, and Berger spoke on radio shows. The data collected was published in open-access journals and scanned in-order to allow the greatest amount of scientists to access and contribute to the study of the fossil data, quite different from the slow and limited access methods used by most paleoanthropologists.

Excavator team

• Hannah Morris, archaeologist.
• Alia Gurtov is a University of Wisconsin – Madison Ph.D. candidate researching the effects of seasonality on hominin foraging at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania.
• Marina Elliott is originally from Calgary, Canada, and has a master's degree in biological anthropology from Simon Fraser University, Canada.
• Elen Feuerriegel, then a PhD candidate at the Australian National University, studying shoulder biomechanics with Colin Groves in Oldowan stone tool manufacture.
• Becca Peixotto is an archaeologist and Ph.D. student in the Department of Anthropology at American University in Washington, D.C.
• K. Lindsay (née Eaves) Hunter is a biological anthropologist and currently serves as the Community Engagement and Advancement Director for CARTA, the UC San Diego/Salk Center for Academic Research & Training in Anthropogeny, in La Jolla, CA. Following the 2013 expedition, Lindsay married Rick Hunter, one of the co-discoverers of Homo naledi.

See also

• Rising Star Cave
• Homo naledi
• Dawn of Humanity (2015 PBS film)

References

1. ^ Hunter, K. Lindsay (1 Sep 2017). "K. Lindsay Hunter". LinkedIn. Retrieved 1 Sep 2017.
2. "These 6 women risked death for an amazing scientific discovery". Tech Insider. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
3. "Meet the "underground astronauts"". CNN. 2015-09-10. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
4. Bennett, Amanda; Geographic, National (2015-09-17). "Wanted: Fit, Fearless Scientist for Huge Underground Find". National Geographic News. Archived from the original on September 20, 2015. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
5. ^ HIGHAM, TOM (2021-08-24). The World Before Us. Yale University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctv1sfsdqn. ISBN 978-0-300-26309-1. S2CID 241167425.
6. ^ DeSilva, Jeremy (2021). First steps : how upright walking made us human (First ed.). New York, NY. ISBN 978-0-06-293849-7. OCLC 1244114018.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
7. Feltman, Rachel (September 10, 2015). "Meet the six female 'underground astronauts' who recovered our newest relative". The Washington Post. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
8. Smith, David (10 September 2015). "'Small spelunkers required': the ad that led to the discovery of Homo naledi". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
9. ^ Cline, Eric H. (2018). Three stones make a wall : the story of archaeology. Glynnis Fawkes. Princeton. ISBN 978-0-691-18425-8. OCLC 1051770803.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
10. Bascomb, Bobby (10 September 2015). "Archaeology's Disputed Genius". PBS. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
11. Howley, Andrew (6 November 2013). "Rising Star Expedition: Prehistory in the Making". National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on 9 September 2015. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
12. McKenzie, David; Wende, Hamilton (2015-09-10). "Homo naledi: New species of human ancestor discovered". CNN. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
13. ^ Gibbons, Ann (2015-09-11). "New human species discovered". Science. 349 (6253): 1149–1150. doi:10.1126/science.349.6253.1149. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 26359379.
14. eNCA (2015-09-14). "'Underground astronaut' shares Homo naledi experience". eNCA. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
15. ^ "Who are the Underground Astronauts?". EWN. Retrieved 2016-01-05.

External links

• The Women Behind the Discovery of Humankind's Newest (Maybe) Relative
• Trowel Blazers - Rising Star
• The role of women and youth in discovering Homo Naledi

v t e Cradle of Humankind
Sites	Bolt's Farm Cooper's Cave Drimolen Gladysvale Gondolin Haasgat Kromdraai Makapan Valley Malapa Minnaar's Cave Motsetsi Plovers Lake Rising Star Cave Sterkfontein Swartkrans Wonder Cave
Fossils	Agapornis longipes Australopithecus africanus Taung Child Mrs. Ples Little Foot Australopithecus sediba Paranthropus robustus Homo naledi Homo gautengensis
Anthropology	Scientists Lee Berger C. K. Brain Robert Broom H. B. S. Cooke Ronald J. Clarke Raymond Dart Andre Keyser John T. Robinson Phillip V. Tobias Expeditions Rising Star Expedition Underground Astronauts

• Women archaeologists
• Paleontology in South Africa
• Archaeological sites in South Africa
• National Geographic Society
• University of the Witwatersrand
• Archaeological history of Southern Africa
• 2013 in South Africa
• 2014 in South Africa
• Cradle of Humankind