Full description
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.
Notes
There are two datasets in this record: 1. Paleo-anthropology data: TEXT S1. Fossil preservation, ontogenetic age, and sex of Malapa hominins. TEXT S2. Comparative craniodental materials examined in this study. TEXT S3. Character states based on measures from Table 2. TEXT S4. Digital reconstruction and virtual preparation. Five figures and two tables accompany the text. 2. Geological Data: Geological context and absolute age of the Malapa Australopithecus sediba skeletons from U-Pb dating of flowstone from the Malapa site, magnetostratigraphy of the Malapa site and cosmogenic isotope studies.
The data is in pdf format.
Created: 2011-12-09
Data time period: 2008
text: Malapa Fossil Site, Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, South Africa
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- Local : e04ede0d096a07b030fc3d4075e68743
- Local : jcu.edu.au/tdh/collection/2fbe9a82-205b-490e-983b-cb11234d1102
- Local : https://research.jcu.edu.au/data/published/d74088f357b2548c817a1cec348fb619