The age of Homo naledi and associated sediments in the Rising Star Cave, South Africa
New ages for flowstone, sediments and fossil bones from the Dinaledi Chamber are presented. We combined optically stimulated luminescence dating of sediments with U-Th and palaeomagnetic analyses of flowstones to establish that all sediments containing Homo naledi fossils can be allocated to a singl...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
2017-05-01
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| Series: | eLife |
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| Online Access: | https://elifesciences.org/articles/24231 |
| _version_ | 1818025093102567424 |
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| author | Paul HGM Dirks Eric M Roberts Hannah Hilbert-Wolf Jan D Kramers John Hawks Anthony Dosseto Mathieu Duval Marina Elliott Mary Evans Rainer Grün John Hellstrom Andy IR Herries Renaud Joannes-Boyau Tebogo V Makhubela Christa J Placzek Jessie Robbins Carl Spandler Jelle Wiersma Jon Woodhead Lee R Berger |
| author_facet | Paul HGM Dirks Eric M Roberts Hannah Hilbert-Wolf Jan D Kramers John Hawks Anthony Dosseto Mathieu Duval Marina Elliott Mary Evans Rainer Grün John Hellstrom Andy IR Herries Renaud Joannes-Boyau Tebogo V Makhubela Christa J Placzek Jessie Robbins Carl Spandler Jelle Wiersma Jon Woodhead Lee R Berger |
| author_sort | Paul HGM Dirks |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | New ages for flowstone, sediments and fossil bones from the Dinaledi Chamber are presented. We combined optically stimulated luminescence dating of sediments with U-Th and palaeomagnetic analyses of flowstones to establish that all sediments containing Homo naledi fossils can be allocated to a single stratigraphic entity (sub-unit 3b), interpreted to be deposited between 236 ka and 414 ka. This result has been confirmed independently by dating three H. naledi teeth with combined U-series and electron spin resonance (US-ESR) dating. Two dating scenarios for the fossils were tested by varying the assumed levels of 222Rn loss in the encasing sediments: a maximum age scenario provides an average age for the two least altered fossil teeth of 253 +82/–70 ka, whilst a minimum age scenario yields an average age of 200 +70/–61 ka. We consider the maximum age scenario to more closely reflect conditions in the cave, and therefore, the true age of the fossils. By combining the US-ESR maximum age estimate obtained from the teeth, with the U-Th age for the oldest flowstone overlying Homo naledi fossils, we have constrained the depositional age of Homo naledi to a period between 236 ka and 335 ka. These age results demonstrate that a morphologically primitive hominin, Homo naledi, survived into the later parts of the Pleistocene in Africa, and indicate a much younger age for the Homo naledi fossils than have previously been hypothesized based on their morphology. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T04:10:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-637fe7525e604fef92ebe1c00e9837fb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2050-084X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T04:10:37Z |
| publishDate | 2017-05-01 |
| publisher | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd |
| record_format | Article |
| series | eLife |
| spelling | doaj.art-637fe7525e604fef92ebe1c00e9837fb2022-12-22T02:02:45ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2017-05-01610.7554/eLife.24231The age of Homo naledi and associated sediments in the Rising Star Cave, South AfricaPaul HGM Dirks0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1582-1405Eric M Roberts1Hannah Hilbert-Wolf2Jan D Kramers3John Hawks4Anthony Dosseto5Mathieu Duval6Marina Elliott7Mary Evans8Rainer Grün9John Hellstrom10Andy IR Herries11Renaud Joannes-Boyau12https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0452-486XTebogo V Makhubela13Christa J Placzek14Jessie Robbins15Carl Spandler16Jelle Wiersma17Jon Woodhead18Lee R Berger19https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0367-7629Department of Geoscience, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia; Evolutionary Studies Institute and the National Centre for Excellence in PalaeoSciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Wits, South AfricaDepartment of Geoscience, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia; Evolutionary Studies Institute and the National Centre for Excellence in PalaeoSciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Wits, South AfricaDepartment of Geoscience, James Cook University, Townsville, AustraliaDepartment of Geology, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South AfricaEvolutionary Studies Institute and the National Centre for Excellence in PalaeoSciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Wits, South Africa; Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, United StatesSchool of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, AustraliaAustralian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Australia; Geochronology, Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, SpainEvolutionary Studies Institute and the National Centre for Excellence in PalaeoSciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Wits, South AfricaSchool of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Wits, South AfricaAustralian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Australia; Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, AustraliaSchool of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, AustraliaThe Australian Archaeomagnetism Laboratory, Department of Archaeology and History, La Trobe University, Melbourne, AustraliaGeoarchaeology and Archaeometry Research Group, Department of GeoScience, Southern Cross University, Lismore, AustraliaDepartment of Geology, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South AfricaDepartment of Geoscience, James Cook University, Townsville, AustraliaDepartment of Geoscience, James Cook University, Townsville, AustraliaDepartment of Geoscience, James Cook University, Townsville, AustraliaDepartment of Geoscience, James Cook University, Townsville, AustraliaSchool of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, AustraliaEvolutionary Studies Institute and the National Centre for Excellence in PalaeoSciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Wits, South AfricaNew ages for flowstone, sediments and fossil bones from the Dinaledi Chamber are presented. We combined optically stimulated luminescence dating of sediments with U-Th and palaeomagnetic analyses of flowstones to establish that all sediments containing Homo naledi fossils can be allocated to a single stratigraphic entity (sub-unit 3b), interpreted to be deposited between 236 ka and 414 ka. This result has been confirmed independently by dating three H. naledi teeth with combined U-series and electron spin resonance (US-ESR) dating. Two dating scenarios for the fossils were tested by varying the assumed levels of 222Rn loss in the encasing sediments: a maximum age scenario provides an average age for the two least altered fossil teeth of 253 +82/–70 ka, whilst a minimum age scenario yields an average age of 200 +70/–61 ka. We consider the maximum age scenario to more closely reflect conditions in the cave, and therefore, the true age of the fossils. By combining the US-ESR maximum age estimate obtained from the teeth, with the U-Th age for the oldest flowstone overlying Homo naledi fossils, we have constrained the depositional age of Homo naledi to a period between 236 ka and 335 ka. These age results demonstrate that a morphologically primitive hominin, Homo naledi, survived into the later parts of the Pleistocene in Africa, and indicate a much younger age for the Homo naledi fossils than have previously been hypothesized based on their morphology.https://elifesciences.org/articles/24231Homo naledihomininDinaledi ChamberdatingpaleoanthropologyPleistocene |
| spellingShingle | Paul HGM Dirks Eric M Roberts Hannah Hilbert-Wolf Jan D Kramers John Hawks Anthony Dosseto Mathieu Duval Marina Elliott Mary Evans Rainer Grün John Hellstrom Andy IR Herries Renaud Joannes-Boyau Tebogo V Makhubela Christa J Placzek Jessie Robbins Carl Spandler Jelle Wiersma Jon Woodhead Lee R Berger The age of Homo naledi and associated sediments in the Rising Star Cave, South Africa eLife Homo naledi hominin Dinaledi Chamber dating paleoanthropology Pleistocene |
| title | The age of Homo naledi and associated sediments in the Rising Star Cave, South Africa |
| title_full | The age of Homo naledi and associated sediments in the Rising Star Cave, South Africa |
| title_fullStr | The age of Homo naledi and associated sediments in the Rising Star Cave, South Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | The age of Homo naledi and associated sediments in the Rising Star Cave, South Africa |
| title_short | The age of Homo naledi and associated sediments in the Rising Star Cave, South Africa |
| title_sort | age of homo naledi and associated sediments in the rising star cave south africa |
| topic | Homo naledi hominin Dinaledi Chamber dating paleoanthropology Pleistocene |
| url | https://elifesciences.org/articles/24231 |
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