Cosmogenic nuclide dating of Australopithecus at Sterkfontein, South Africa

Sterkfontein is the most prolific single source of Australopithecus fossils, the vast majority of which were recovered from Member 4, a cave breccia now exposed by erosion and weathering at the landscape surface. A few other Australopithecus fossils, including the StW 573 skeleton, come from subterr...

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Published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 119; no. 27; pp. 1 - e2123516119
Main Authors Granger, Darryl E., Stratford, Dominic, Bruxelles, Laurent, Gibbon, Ryan J., Clarke, Ronald J., Kuman, Kathleen
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington National Academy of Sciences 05.07.2022
Subjects
Archaeology and Prehistory
Australopithecus
Biological Sciences
Breccia
Earth Sciences
Fossils
Geochemistry
Geomorphology
Humanities and Social Sciences
Physical Sciences
Pliocene
Sciences of the Universe
South Africa
Cosmogenic Nuclide dating
Australopithecus
South Africa
Stratigraphy
Sterkfontein
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Summary:Sterkfontein is the most prolific single source of Australopithecus fossils, the vast majority of which were recovered from Member 4, a cave breccia now exposed by erosion and weathering at the landscape surface. A few other Australopithecus fossils, including the StW 573 skeleton, come from subterranean deposits [T. C. Partridge et al. , Science 300, 607–612 (2003); R. J. Clarke, K. Kuman, J. Hum. Evol. 134, 102634 (2019)]. Here, we report a cosmogenic nuclide isochron burial date of 3.41 ± 0.11 million years (My) within the lower middle part of Member 4, and simple burial dates of 3.49 ± 0.19 My in the upper middle part of Member 4 and 3.61 ± 0.09 My in Jacovec Cavern. Together with a previously published isochron burial date of 3.67 ± 0.16 My for StW 573 [D. E. Granger et al. , Nature 522, 85–88 (2015)], these results place nearly the entire Australopithecus assemblage at Sterkfontein in the mid-Pliocene, contemporaneous with Australopithecus afarensis in East Africa. Our ages for the fossil-bearing breccia in Member 4 are considerably older than the previous ages of ca. 2.1 to 2.6 My interpreted from flowstones associated with the same deposit. We show that these previously dated flowstones are stratigraphically intrusive within Member 4 and that they therefore underestimate the true age of the fossils.
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2R.J.C. and K.K. have elsewhere published against the inconsistent use of the term hominin (from the tribal name Hominini) and continue to use the term hominid (from the family name Hominidae) to apply to humans and their ancestral kin to exclude the great apes.
Author contributions: D.E.G. and R.J.G. designed research; D.E.G., D.S., L.B., R.J.C., and K.K. performed research; D.E.G., D.S., and L.B. analyzed data; and D.E.G., D.S., L.B., R.J.C., and K.K. wrote the paper.
Edited by Paul Renne, University of California, Berkeley, CA; received December 30, 2021; accepted May 4, 2022 by Editorial Board Member C. O. Lovejoy
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.2123516119