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Gladysvale: First early hominid site discovered in South Africa since 1948
Author(s) -
Berger Lee R.,
Keyser André W.,
Tobias Phillip V.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/ajpa.1330920109
Subject(s) - cave , fauna , paleontology , geology , pleistocene , archaeology , geography , early pleistocene , deposition (geology) , ecology , structural basin , biology
We report here the discovery of fossil hominid teeth at Gladysvale, near Johannesburg in the southern Transvaal. This find makes the site the seventh in South Africa to yield australopithecine remains and the first new early hominid‐bearing locality to be found in this region since 1948. Apart from the hominid specimens, our excavations at Gladysvale have added appreciably to the abundant Plio‐Pleistocene fauna previously recorded from the cave deposit. The fauna indicates that savanna conditions prevailed during deposition of at least part of the fill. Preliminary faunal dating gives an age of deposition of between c1.7 and c2.5 mya. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.