RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Geological Setting and Age of <em>Australopithecus sediba</em> from Southern Africa
JF Science
JO Science
FD American Association for the Advancement of Science
SP 205
OP 208
DO 10.1126/science.1184950
VO 328
IS 5975
A1 Dirks, Paul H. G. M.
A1 Kibii, Job M.
A1 Kuhn, Brian F.
A1 Steininger, Christine
A1 Churchill, Steven E.
A1 Kramers, Jan D.
A1 Pickering, Robyn
A1 Farber, Daniel L.
A1 Mériaux, Anne-Sophie
A1 Herries, Andy I. R.
A1 King, Geoffrey C. P.
A1 Berger, Lee R.
YR 2010
UL http://science.sciencemag.org/content/328/5975/205.abstract
AB We describe the geological, geochronological, geomorphological, and faunal context of the Malapa site and the fossils of Australopithecus sediba. The hominins occur with a macrofauna assemblage that existed in Africa between 2.36 and 1.50 million years ago (Ma). The fossils are encased in water-laid, clastic sediments that were deposited along the lower parts of what is now a deeply eroded cave system, immediately above a flowstone layer with a U-Pb date of 2.026 ± 0.021 Ma. The flowstone has a reversed paleomagnetic signature and the overlying hominin-bearing sediments are of normal polarity, indicating deposition during the 1.95- to 1.78-Ma Olduvai Subchron. The two hominin specimens were buried together in a single debris flow that lithified soon after deposition in a phreatic environment inaccessible to scavengers.