Awesome to see the Rising Star Expedition on HN! I was working in Johannesburg while the expedition was active and my partner managed, through a serious of very fortunate events to become a caver on the expedition. Here she is carrying up some of the first bones they extracted - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;IfT4PQz.jpg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;IfT4PQz.jpg</a>.<p>For those of you interested, the expedition was sponsored by National Geographic, and there was&#x2F;is a fairly extensive  blog (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;voices.nationalgeographic.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;rising-star-expedition&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;voices.nationalgeographic.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;rising-star-expedi...</a>) covering most of the details. When they first started pulling up the fossils, the excitement was palpable - <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;voices.nationalgeographic.com&#x2F;2013&#x2F;11&#x2F;11&#x2F;video-first-day-in-fossil-cave&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;voices.nationalgeographic.com&#x2F;2013&#x2F;11&#x2F;11&#x2F;video-first-...</a>.<p>The expedition occurred nearly two years ago, and there were so many bones still left in the catchment that they left many behind.<p>Incidentally, though the article says it was scientists who discovered the fossils - they were actually discovered by amateur cavers. The Cradle of Humankind (so named because there are so many similar catchments in the surrounding area) has a massive system of caves and some of the most hardcore amateur cavers in the world.