Elen Feuerriegel
Elen Feuerriegel is an Australian palaeoanthropologist, known for being one of the "underground astronauts" of the Rising Star Expedition. She is a researcher at the University of Washington.
Feuerriegel studied anthropology at the University of Queensland and the Australian National University. She then embarked on a PhD at ANU, under the supervision of Colin Groves, which she completed in 2017. Her thesis was on the biomechanics of the hominoid shoulder and its role in tool-making, and included research on Homo naledi fossils from Rising Star Cave.
In 2013, whilst a PhD student, Feuerriegal responded to an advertisement on Facebook calling for "skinny, highly-qualified paleontologists" with caving experience. The advertisement was placed by Lee Berger, who was recruiting a team to recover hominid fossils he had discovered in the difficult-to-access Dinaledi Chamber of Rising Star Cave. Feuerriegal helped excavate the fossils, which were subsequently assigned to a new species of human, Homo naledi. She also studied its upper limb bones.Selected publications
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