Drimoles

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Drimolen is a Pleistocene fossil site in Gauteng Province , South Africa , near the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve , around seven kilometers north of the Sterkfontein Caves . It is also a former mountain system that had formed in a dolomite deposit and was gradually backfilled. The oldest fossils leading layers were biostratigraphically (using animal fossils) at an age of about 1.5 to 2 million years dated.

Drimolen has an area of ​​around 1,800 square meters and is located in the area known as the Cradle of Humankind , around five kilometers north of Kromdraai . The place was recognized in 1992 by the South African geologist André W. Keyser (* 1938; † August 15, 2010) as a fossil leader when, after his early retirement - he was employed by the Geological Survey of South Africa - a place for a future one Paleontological leisure activity ("retirement hobby") was looking for. The name refers to the owner of the farm in 1992, on whose premises the site is located, van Drimolen, and was explored under Keyser's direction until his death.

Outstanding finds in 1994 were the almost complete skull with associated lower jaw DNH 7 and the almost completely dentate lower jaw DNH 8, both of which were ascribed to Paranthropus robustus . Numerous other bone and tooth finds, including a relatively large number of milk teeth , were also interpreted partly as remains of Paranthropus robustus , partly ascribed to a "non-robust" australopithecine species that can not be identified with certainty , and partly - including the fossil DNH 35 - not assigned to a species placed in the genus Homo ; the fossils DNH 45 and DNH 70 possibly belong to Homo habilis , but DNH 70 was also assigned to Homo gautengensis .

In April 2020, the journal Science described the fossil DNH 134, which is 2.04 to 1.95 million years old and is the oldest known find of Homo erectus to date .

Bones of various animal species were also recovered from the fossil deposit, including baboons ( Papio robinsoni ) and vervet monkeys , big cats (including Dinofelis ), hyenas and several types of horned animals .

On some animal bones, traces of processing have been described that were interpreted as early tools from the time of Paranthropus robustus and associated with the consumption of termites.

literature

  • Alessandro Riga, Tommaso Mori, Travis Rayne Pickering et al .: Ages ‐ at ‐ death distribution of the early Pleistocene hominin fossil assemblage from Drimolen (South Africa). In: American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Volume 168, No. 3, 2019, pp. 632-636, doi: /10.1002/ajpa.23771
  • André W. Keyser: The Dawn of Humans: New Finds in South Africa. In: National Geographic , May 2000, pp. 76-83

Individual evidence

  1. ^ André W. Keyser et al .: Drimolen: a new hominid-bearing site in Gauteng, South Africa. In: South African Journal of Science. Volume 96, 2000, pp. 193–197 full text (PDF; 626 kB)
  2. ^ André W. Keyser: The Dawn of Humans: New Finds in South Africa. In: National Geographic. May 2000, pp. 78 and 82
  3. ^ André W. Keyser: The Drimolen skull: the most complete australopithecine cranium and mandible to date. In: South African Journal of Science. Volume 96, 2000, pp. 189–193, full text (PDF; 626 kB)
  4. ↑ Darren Curnoe, Phillip V. Tobias: Description, new reconstruction, comparative anatomy, and classification of the Sterkfontein Stw 53 cranium, with discussions about the taxonomy of other southern African early Homo remains. In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 50. No. 1, 2006, pp. 36-77, doi: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2005.07.008 .
  5. ↑ Darren Curnoe: A review of early Homo in southern Africa focusing on cranial, mandibular and dental remains, with the description of a new species (Homo gautengensis sp. Nov.). In: HOMO - Journal of Comparative Human Biology. Volume, No. 3, 2010, pp. 151–177, doi: 10.1016 / j.jchb.2010.04.002 .
  6. ^ Andy IR Herries et al .: Contemporaneity of Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and early Homo erectus in South Africa. In: Science. Volume 368, No. 6486, eaaw7293, doi: 10.1126 / science.aaw7293 .
    Our direct human ancestor Homo erectus is older than we thought. On: eurekalert.org from April 2, 2020.
  7. ↑ Hannah J. O'Regan, Colin G. Menter: Carnivora from the Plio-Pleistocene hominin site of Drimolen, Gauteng, South Africa. In: Geobios. Volume 42, No. 3, 2009, pp. 329-350, doi : 10.1016 / j.geobios.2009.03.001
  8. ↑ Lucinda Backwell, Francesco d'Errico: Early hominid bone tools from Drimolen, South Africa. In: Journal of Archaeological Science. Volume 35, No. 11, 2008, pp. 2880-2894, doi: 10.1016 / j.jas.2008.05.017 .
  9. ↑ Lucinda R. Backwell, Francesco d'Errico: Evidence of termite foraging by Swartkrans early hominids. In: PNAS . Volume 98, No. 4, 2001, pp. 1358-1363, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.98.4.1358 .

Coordinates: 25 ° 58 ′ 8 ″  S , 27 ° 45 ′ 21 ″  O