Overview
- The study published on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, reports that peptide analysis of tooth enamel from 23 teeth representing at least 20 Homo naledi individuals showed no detectable AMELY, the Y‑linked amelogenin marker used to indicate biological males.
- Researchers used a minimally destructive acid‑etching paleoproteomic method and ran independent lab checks to recover ancient enamel proteins and confirm the absence of the AMELY peptide in the 20 informative samples.
- Authors and Rising Star site leaders say the statistics make random sampling unlikely, calculating a roughly 0.0000954% chance of getting no AMELY from a balanced population, a result they argue is consistent with a female‑only mortuary space.
- Other scientists stress alternative explanations are plausible, including a population‑level AMELY deletion or mutation, taphonomic or access biases that favored recovery of smaller-bodied individuals, and the unusual all‑female juvenile representation that complicates simple demographic accounts.
- Next steps include independent replication, targeted genomic or additional proteomic tests, and more archaeological field work to look for male H. naledi elsewhere and to evaluate whether the assemblage reflects deliberate mortuary behavior or biological anomaly.