The announcement of the discovery by the Rising Star Expedition team of a new species of human relative, Homo naledi, has attracted unprecedented global media attention and coverage.

Described as the “biggest single discovery of its kind in Africa”, the announcement on 10 September 2015 also took social media by storm and the hastags, #HomoNaledi and #NalediFossils, trended at number one locally and internationally on the day.

Here is a taste of some of the major local and international television, radio, print, wire services and online media coverage:

Some early statistics:

·         10 September 2015: 16 000 people watched the live web streaming of the launch on the Wits website. You can watch a replay at streaming.wits.ac.za. The event was also broadcast live on eNCA, SABC and 702, among others.

·         15 September 2015: 160 000 page views and 16 000 downloads of the Homo naledi scientific paper from the open access journal eLife.

·         16 September 2015: Download this pdf for a selection of the South African coverage. (Warning: This file is more than 1GB.)

·         16 September 2015: 5 000 views and nearly 1 700 downloads of 3D data from #Homonaledi on MorphoSource at http://morphosource.org/index.php.

If you want to learn more about the discovery, visit www.wits.ac.za/homonaledi, or want to know what the hype is all about, watch this short video on the launch.

The  Homo naledi fossils will be on display to the public at the Maropeng Visitors Centre until 11 October 2015 in celebration of Heritage Month at a 25% discounted entry fee.