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The manufacture of stone tools and their use to access animal tissues by Pliocene hominins marks the origin of a key adaptation in human evolutionary history. Here we report an in situ archaeological assemblage from the Koobi Fora Formation in northern Kenya that provides a unique combination of faunal remains, some with direct evidence of butchery, and Oldowan artifacts, which are well dated to 1.95 Ma. This site provides the oldest in situ evidence that hominins, predating Homo erectus, enjoyed access to carcasses of terrestrial and aquatic animals that they butchered in a well-watered habitat. It also provides the earliest definitive evidence of the incorporation into the hominin diet of various aquatic animals including turtles, crocodiles, and fish, which are rich sources of specific nutrients needed in human brain growth. The evidence here shows that these critical brain-growth compounds were part of the diets of hominins before the appearance of Homo ergaster/ erectus and could have played an important role in the evolution of larger brains in the early history of our lineage. Oldowan | Paleolithic | stone tools | paleomagnetism doi/ 10.1073/pnas.1002181107

We describe the geological, geochronological, geomorphological, and faunal context of the Malapa site and the fossils of Australopithecus sediba. The hominins occur with a macrofauna assemblage that existed in Africa between 2.36 and 1.50 million years ago (Ma). The fossils are encased in water-laid, clastic sediments that were deposited along the Lower parts of what is now a deeply eroded cave system, immediately above a flowstone layer with a U-Pb date of 2.026 [+ or -] 0.021 Ma. The flowstone has a reversed paleomagnetic signature and the overlying hominin-bearing sediments are of normal polarity, indicating deposition during the 1.95- to 1.78-Ma Olduvai Subchron. The two hominin specimens were buried together in a single debris flow that lithified soon after deposition in a phreatic environment inaccessible to scavengers. 10.1126/science.1184950

The controlled use of fire was a breakthrough adaptation in human evolution. It first provided heat and light and tater allowed the physical properties of materials to be manipulated for the production of ceramics and metals. The analysis of tools at multiple sites shows that the source stone rnaterials were systematically manipulated with fire to improve their flaking properties. Heat treatment predominates among silcrete tools at ~72 thousand years ago (ka) and appears as early as 164 ka at Pinnacle Point, on the south coast of South Africa. Heat treatment demands a sophisticated knowledge of fire and an elevated cognitive ability and appears at roughly the same time as widespread evidence for symbolic behavior.

Genetic and anatomical evidence suggests that Homo sapiens arose in Africa between 200 and 100 thousand years (kyr) ago (1,2), and recent evidence indicates symbolic behaviour may have appeared ~135-75 [...]

Introduction One major problem for researchers in the palaeocaves of South Africa has been to gain access to the stratigraphy within the caves. The palaeocaves now lie as mined-out shells, [...]

Accurate decomposition of Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) spectrum is a crucial task to extract compound signal intensities of enamel fragments at different irradiation time, in particular for dose recovery accuracy. While it can be achieved manually, the task is laborious and repetitive. In this paper, we present a new freely available program " ESRfra g" that allows the alignment, merging, and computation of complex angular ESR spectra. This program is an open access web-based code, designed to specifically alleviate the daunting task of working with large amounts of ESR spectra for enamel fragment dating. ESRfrag provides an increased reliability and precision on the results compared to manual calculation by removing operators bias. The program can be freely access through the Geoarchaeology and Archaeometry Research Group website (https://www.garg.org.au/projects). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Following the discovery of the 'Taung Child' ( Australopithecus africanus) in 1924 in the Buxton-Norlim Limeworks near Taung, the fossil-bearing deposits associated with the Dart and Hrdlička pinnacles have been interpreted as the mined remnants of cave sediments that formed within the Plio-Pleistocene Thabaseek Tufa: either as a younger cave-fill or as contemporaneous carapace caves. When combined with the Plio-Pleistocene dolomitic cave deposits from the 'Cradle of Humankind,' a rather restricted view emerges that South African early hominins derived from cave deposits, whereas those of east and central Africa are derived from fluvio-lacustrine and paleosol deposits. We undertook a sedimentological and paleomagnetic analysis of the pink-colored deposit (PCS) from which the 'Taung Child' is purported to have derived and demonstrate that it is a calcrete, a carbonate-rich pedogenic sediment, which formed on the paleo-land surface. The deposit extends 100 s of meters laterally beyond the Dart and Hrdlička Pinnacles where it is interbedded with the Thabaseek Tufa, indicating multiple episodes of calcrete development and tufa growth. The presence of in situ rhizoconcretions and insect trace fossils ( Celliforma sp. and Coprinisphaera sp.) and the distinctive carbonate microfabric confirm that the pink deposit is a pedogenic calcrete, not a calcified cave sediment. Paleomagnetic and stratigraphic evidence indicates that a second, reversed polarity, fossil-bearing deposit (YRSS) is a younger fissure-fill formed within a solutional cavity of the normal polarity tufa and pink calcrete (PCS). These observations have implications for the dating, environment, and taphonomy of the site, and increase the likelihood of future fossil discoveries within the Buxton-Norlim Limeworks. Am J Phys Anthropol 151:316-324, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lake sediment archives covering several glacial cycles are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere and they are challenging to date. Here we present the chronostratigraphy of the oldest continuous lake sediment archive in Tasmania, Australia; a 5.5 m and 270 ka (Marine Isotope Stage 8) sediment core from Lake Selina. We employ radiometric dating (radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence) and relative dating (geomagnetic and climate comparisons). Bayesian modeling of the radiometric ages reaches back to 80 ka (1.7 m) and relative dating using a dynamic programing algorithm allows dating of the full sequence. Elemental data, magnetic properties and beryllium isotopes from Lake Selina reveal a close fit to Antarctic ice core climate proxies. Weaker correlation during the Last Glacial Period (MIS 2–4) is attributed to additional local factors impacting Lake Selina proxies at a time of climate changes and human arrival into Tasmania. Over that period, full vector paleomagnetic records and authigenic 10Be/9Be ratios are combined to identify the Laschamp geomagnetic excursion for the first time in Australia and constrain the chronology. The multi-method approach provides two preferred age models, indiscernible within their uncertainties, which allows the use of a geomagnetic dipole-independent (full archive) or a climate-independent (111 ka to present) age model. • Chronostratigraphy of a 266 ± 8 ka continuous lake sediment archive from Australia. • We combine radiometric (14C, OSL) and relative dating (geomagnetic and climatic). • Bayesian modeling and dynamic programing integrate dating constraints. • First identification of the Laschamp geomagnetic excursion in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]