Faunal dating of the Taung hominid fossil deposit

Abstract

Abstract Although the Taung skull was once thought to be the oldest representative of Australopithecus africanus , more recent attempts to date the Taung site have ranged from 2·3 m.y.a. based on cercopithecid biochronology to as recent as 1 m.y.a. based on radiometric techniques. Recent work by Vogel has shown that the latter date can be disregarded. Our excavations of Taung deposits from 1988 to 1992, under the direction of P. V. Tobias, have revealed more fauna and geological information with which we can make a more accurate assessment of the faunal age than was possible with cercopithecids alone. On the basis of historical records and newly exposed fossil deposits deeper within the cave-riddled Thabaseek tufa, it seems likely that the Taung hominid predates the Hrdlicka deposits from which most of the fauna have been derived. Thus a faunal date derived from the combined samples can serve only as a terminus ad quem for the age of the hominid deposits. The Hrdlicka fauna falls within a time range close to that of Sterkfontein Member 4, ca. 2·4 to 2·6 m.y.a., whereas the hominid deposit could be somewhat older, in the probable range of 2·6 to 2·8 m.y.a.