Johannesburg - Rick Hunter didn’t only discover a remarkable new species of human relative by accident while exploring caves in the Cradle of Humankind. He also discovered the love of his life.
It was while later working as an exploration technician in the Rising Star cave system that he met his wife, K Lindsay Hunter, a biological anthropologist who was part of a six-member female team of underground astronauts.
She was tasked with retrieving the fossilised skeletons of the Homo naledi specimens that Hunter and his friend Steven Tucker had first stumbled on in September 2013.
“Through this expedition, we spent a lot of time together,” Hunter told the Saturday Star. “We had this connection and over the past two years we got closer together.”
The couple married in December and are expecting their first child in January.
Hunter, a small space specialist who is built “like a beanpole”, said he and Tucker, an accountant, were exploring the Rising Star cave system in the dark on September 13, 2013 – a Friday, when they chanced upon the fossils.
The pair of amateur cavers had entered a tiny crevice called Superman’s crawl, and then entered a bigger cave, climbing up another precarious one called Dragon’s Back.
Tucker entered the Dinaledi Chamber, and eventually called Hunter to come down. They had been told to be on the lookout for fossils.
“Finding fossils wasn’t our primary objective. But then we found a few teeth and a mandible and realised that looked human. We knew from talking to people that you don’t take fossils out – so a week later, we went back and took some photos.”
Those images were brought to the attention of Professor Lee Berger of Wits University. The rest is paleontological history.
“I thought it was something important, but I didn’t have a clue what had taken place,” said Hunter.
Both he and Tucker are now employed as exploration technicians as part of Berger’s crew. “Basically, Monday to Friday we’re looking for caves, exploring and helping explorations.
“It’s incredible. It’s blown us all away.”
Saturday Star