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New Isotopic and Sedimentological Measurements of the Thabaseek Deposits (South Africa) and the Dating of the Taung Hominid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Phillip V. Tobias ,
John C. Vogel ,
H. Dieter Oschadleus ,
Timothy C. Partridge  and
Jeffrey K. McKee
Phillip V. Tobias
Affiliation:
Palaeo-anthropology Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, 7 York Road, Parktown, Johannesburg 2193, South Africa
John C. Vogel
Affiliation:
Palaeo-anthropology Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, 7 York Road, Parktown, Johannesburg 2193, South Africa
H. Dieter Oschadleus
Affiliation:
Palaeo-anthropology Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, 7 York Road, Parktown, Johannesburg 2193, South Africa
Timothy C. Partridge
Affiliation:
Palaeo-anthropology Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, 7 York Road, Parktown, Johannesburg 2193, South Africa
Jeffrey K. McKee
Affiliation:
Palaeo-anthropology Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, 7 York Road, Parktown, Johannesburg 2193, South Africa
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Abstract

Earlier attempts to date the Taung hominid type specimen of Australopithecus africanus Dart yielded conflicting results. Recent faunal studies pointed to an age of 2.3 myr. Radioisotopic results suggested 1.0 myr. New uranium studies reveal that the Thabaseek (the oldest Taung tufa) was not a closed system and that younger uranium entered the tufa after initial deposition, producing an apparent isotopic age younger than the age of deposition. The Thabaseek isotopic dates provide only a terminus ad quem and this technique is therefore not applicable to the older Taung tufas. Delson's dating (2.3 myr) of cercopithecoids from Hrdlicka's pinnacle ca. 50 m from the hominid site provides the best available approximation to the age of the hominid. In our new Taung excavation, stratigraphic analysis indicates that the hominid may somewhat predate most identified fauna. Sedimentologically the hominid matrix proves to be of fluvial deposition, and hence closely resembles one Hrdlicka deposit, both samples differing appreciably from all other Taung samples which bespeak eolian deposition. Thus, the conditions under which the hominid-bearing stratum was deposited were virtually identical to those pertaining to one of the Hrdlicka deposits. The newest results show that Taung was not the youngest South African australopithecine site and eliminate the discrepancy between the relative ages of the Taung A. africanus africanus and the Sterkfontein A. africanus transvaalensis.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , November 1993 , pp. 360 - 367
Copyright
University of Washington

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