Izvorni znanstveni članak
Recent Paleoanthropological Excavations of In Situ Deposits at Makapansgat, South Africa – A First Report
Tafline Crawford
Jeffrey McKee
Kevin Kuykendall
Alf Latham
Glenn C. Conroy
Sažetak
The Makapansgat Limeworks is a significant Pliocene site both for its sample of 35
hominin fossils as well as its wealth of fossil fauna. The lithological and paleontological
successions reveal local environmental changes that are important for understanding
the context of hominin evolution in southern Africa. Yet most of the site’s fossils were
found in dumps left behind by quarry operations, and the paleoecological interpretations
rest upon debatable assumptions about the original fossil provenience. We have recently
initiated systematic paleoanthropological excavations at Makapansgat to recover
well provenanced fossils in order to: 1) assess whether faunal successions are discernable
in the Makapansgat sequence; 2) assist environmental interpretations of the site;
3) and potentially recover the oldest hominins in South Africa, roughly coincident with
Australopithecus afarensis in East Africa. This paper presents a summary of our current
paleoenvironmental research at the Limeworks and preliminary results of ongoing
in situ excavations.
Ključne riječi
Makapansgat; excavations; australopithecine; A. africanus
Hrčak ID:
27962
URI
Datum izdavanja:
28.12.2004.
Posjeta: 1.253 *