Overview
- An international team published results in Cell on Wednesday reporting that enamel proteins from 23 teeth representing at least 20 Homo naledi individuals showed no trace of the Y-linked amelogenin (AMELY) peptide, leading the authors to classify all sampled specimens as female.
- The Rising Star team interprets the all-female sample as possible evidence that the Dinaledi Chamber was used as a sex-specific mortuary space, a conclusion that, if behavioral, would imply deliberate selection of female bodies for deposition.
- Researchers outside the team caution alternative explanations, including a population-level deletion or mutation of the AMELY gene that would make males undetectable by this method, and the possibility of demographic or taphonomic sampling bias from how and where remains entered or were recovered from the cave.
- The sex assignments use paleoproteomics of tooth enamel, a robust way to recover deep-time sex markers when DNA is absent, but the method has limits because rare AMELY deletions have been documented in modern humans and at least one Neanderthal.
- Authors and external scientists say further fieldwork and lab tests are needed to resolve whether the pattern is cultural, genetic, or preservational, so teams are seeking additional remains, independent protein and molecular checks, and new excavation data to clarify the implications for hominin behavior.