Lee Berger announced Monday that he had evidence that between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago, a species with brains the size of a chimpanzee, Homo naledi, buried its dead and carved symbols on the walls of tombs. In the world of paleontology, which is not spared by ego battles, the naturalized South African American has often been accused of skipping steps.
"Maybe he's going a little too fast relative to the long time it takes to understand this type of context," says a French paleoanthropologist.