Jerry Coyne had written a nice blogpost that discusses the exaggerated media response and the actual academic novelty of this discovery and its description. ht

Jerry Coyne had written a nice blogpost that discusses the exaggerated media response and the actual academic novelty of this discovery and its description. https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/a-new-species-of-hominin-hits-the-news-what-is-it-and-what-does-it-mean/ https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/a-new-sp... Tl;dr: the fossils possess intriguing anatomical features that appear to be (or more probably closely related to) a transition point between Australopithecus and Homo. Any inference of behaviour or even fossil age is speculation. The academia behind it seems to be quite good, but again the media are blowing it out of proportion.