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Science 25 April 2003:
Vol. 300. no. 5619, pp. 607 - 612
DOI: 10.1126/science.1081651
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Research Articles

Lower Pliocene Hominid Remains from Sterkfontein

T. C. Partridge,1* D. E. Granger,2 M. W. Caffee,3 R. J. Clarke4

Cosmogenic aluminum-26 and beryllium-10 burial dates of low-lying fossiliferous breccia in the caves at Sterkfontein, South Africa, show that associated hominid fossils accumulated in the Lower Pliocene. These dates indicate that the skeleton StW 573 and newly discovered specimens from Jacovec Cavern have much the same age: approximately 4 million years. These specimens are thus of an age similar to Australopithecus anamensis from East Africa.

1 Sterkfontein Research Unit and Climatology Research Group, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, WITS 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2 Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907–1397, USA.
3 Department of Physics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907–1396, USA.
4 Sterkfontein Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, 7 York Road, Parktown, Johannesburg 2193, South Africa.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: tcp{at}iafrica.com

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