Australopithecus sediba at 1.977 Ma and Implications for the Origins of the Genus Homo

Robyn Pickering; Paul H. G. M. Dirks; Zubair Jinnah; Darryl J. de Ruiter; Steven E. Churchill; Andy I. R. Herries; Jon D. Woodhead; John C. Hellstrom; Lee R. Berger

doi:10.1126/science.1203697

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Australopithecus sediba at 1.977 Ma and Implications for the Origins of the Genus Homo

Robyn Pickering¹,⁴,*,
Paul H. G. M. Dirks²,³,⁴,
Zubair Jinnah³,
Darryl J. de Ruiter⁵,⁴,
Steven E. Churchill⁶,⁴,
Andy I. R. Herries⁷,
Jon D. Woodhead¹,
John C. Hellstrom¹,
Lee R. Berger⁴,³

¹School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia.
²School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, Queensland 4811, Australia.
³School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Wits 2050, South Africa.
⁴Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Wits 2050, South Africa.
⁵Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
⁶Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
⁷Australian Archaeomagnetism Laboratory, Archaeology Program, School of Historical and European Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

↵*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: r.pickering{at}unimelb.edu.au

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Science 09 Sep 2011:
Vol. 333, Issue 6048, pp. 1421-1423
DOI: 10.1126/science.1203697

Robyn Pickering

School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia.Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Wits 2050, South Africa.

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Paul H. G. M. Dirks

School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, Queensland 4811, Australia.School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Wits 2050, South Africa.Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Wits 2050, South Africa.

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Zubair Jinnah

School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Wits 2050, South Africa.

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Darryl J. de Ruiter

Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Wits 2050, South Africa.

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Steven E. Churchill

Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA.Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Wits 2050, South Africa.

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Andy I. R. Herries

Australian Archaeomagnetism Laboratory, Archaeology Program, School of Historical and European Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

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Jon D. Woodhead

School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia.

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John C. Hellstrom

School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia.

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Lee R. Berger

Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Wits 2050, South Africa.School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Wits 2050, South Africa.

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Abstract

Newly exposed cave sediments at the Malapa site include a flowstone layer capping the sedimentary unit containing the Australopithecus sediba fossils. Uranium-lead dating of the flowstone, combined with paleomagnetic and stratigraphic analysis of the flowstone and underlying sediments, provides a tightly constrained date of 1.977 ± 0.002 million years ago (Ma) for these fossils. This refined dating suggests that Au. sediba from Malapa predates the earliest uncontested evidence for Homo in Africa.

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Further U-series dating and the magnetic stratigraphy of the hosting cave deposits show that Australopithecus sediba lived just under 2 million years ago, near or just before the emergence of Homo.

Australopithecus sediba at 1.977 Ma and Implications for the Origins of the Genus Homo

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