Course:ARCL140 Summer2020/TermProject Group27
Fossilized Hands Found in the Cradle of Humankind in Relation to Tool Use
CONTRIBUTORS & ROLES
Megan Gilbert was responsible for writing the first site.
Yunuhen Moguel was responsible for writing the second site.
Danielle Vivian was responsible for writing the third site and created the map.
Ophelia Roswell was responsible for writing the fourth site and the references section.
All group members wrote the introduction, conclusion and edited the project to create a cohesive end product.
MAP
Longitude and latitude of each site Map
Site 1: Malapa Cave: -25.90472, 27.79569
Site 2: Swartkrans Cave: -26.01893, 27.72233
Site 3: Rising Star Cave: -26.0217, 27.72011
Site 4: Sterkfontein Cave: -26.01664, 27.73271
INTRODUCTION
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Fossil evidence supports the theory that the Genus Homo originated in Africa and continued to evolve into different species, expanding to the rest of the world (Dunsworth 2010, 1). Ergo, an abundance of fossils of the early ancestors of modern humans have been found in South Africa, in a location designated The Cradle of Humankind (a UNESCO World Heritage site) due to the rich amount of paleoanthropological findings there. Hominid fossils have been uncovered there since the 1930s (Lelliot 2016, 1). Furthermore, the fossilized hands found in The Cradle of Humankind can say a lot about tool use. A hand fossil with fingers capable of precision gripping are a clue to tool use and possibly stone tool production (Kivell et al. 2011, 1411). One-handed precision grips and precision maneuvering movements are fundamental for manufacturing tools successfully and the habitual use of these tools as well (Marzke and Marzke 2000, 1). Additionally, evidence of hominid tool use also comes in the form of numerous stone and bone tool artifacts (Lesnik and Thackeray 2007, 354). Therefore, this work will demonstrate the role of fossils of hand bones and tool remains in the evolutionary processes undergone by different species.
Among the numerous sites of the Cradle are the Malapa Cave, the Swartkrans Formation, the Rising Star Caves and the Sterkfontein Formation.
Firstly, Malapa Cave, discovered in 2008, contains a multitude of fossils, including those of Australopithecus sediba, a new species of Australopithecine. A. sediba has a mixture of both primitive and derived characteristics, making its placement in the timeline of human evolution a debated topic.
Secondly, the Swartkrans Formation was once home to different species of Hominin, such as those species pertaining to Paranthropus and Homo. This work has particular interest in arguing what the cave’s fossil remains can tell us about which species created the Oldowan tools found in the Formation.
Thirdly, the Dinaledi Chamber, part of the Rising Star cave system, holds one of the most confusing discoveries of hominins in the Cradle of Humankind. The Homo naledi fossils inside revealed gaps in previous theories of human evolution and reminded paleoanthropologists that we do not yet have a full picture of how genus homo evolved.
Lastly, the Sterkfontein Caves-formed from dolomitic limestone-have produced more early hominid fossils than any other site on Earth. These caves also have the highest concentration of fossils within the Cradle of Humankind. Moreover, the oldest dated stone tools in Southern Africa were found here, some are up to almost 2-million years old.
These sites contain the fossils of Australopithecus sediba, Homo habilis and Paranthropus robustus, Homo naledi, and Australopithecus africanus, respectively. Despite each species having unique characteristics, ultimately, they all contribute to the history of human evolution. Thus, their fossils can tell us about how they lived and how far Homo sapiens as a species have come in terms of our culture.
SITE 1: The Malapa Cave
AUTHOR: Megan Gilbert
LOCATION: The Malapa Cave is found in the Cradle of Humankind (UNESCO's) World Heritage Site, which is located in the province of Gauteng, South Africa. (-25.90472, 27.79569)
AGE: At least 1.977 million years BP
Context
Malapa Cave is located in the Cradle of Humankind in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Judging by fossil dating, it is at least 1.977 million years old. It is a small site, which used to be underground and surrounded by forest but has now been uncovered after millions of years of erosion (Lloyd 2011). It contains concealed openings connected to long tunnels where animal fossils have been found, most likely due to their having fallen inside and gotten trapped. Because of Malapa Cave's former underground state, researchers did not discover this small yet fossil-rich site until 2008. The researchers who discovered the first hominin fossils at the site, Professor Lee Berger and Dr. Job Kibii, noticed that there were loose breccia blocks (rock made up of broken fragments) on the ground around the cave that miners had blasted in the late 19th or early 20th century, unaware that what lay below them was a future discovery in human evolution (Lloyd 2011).
History
This site was only discovered in 2008 but has been the discovery place of a multitude of fossils. The way in which it was initially found is particularly interesting. Using Google Maps to look for untouched cave sites in the Cradle of Humankind, Dr. Berger noticed clumps of trees growing alongside limestone, which led to his locating five hundred new caves (Lloyd 2011). One of these caves, Malapa, he visited alongside his son and Dr. Job Kibii on August 15th, 2008. His son Matthew who discovered the first fossil on the site, a hominid clavicle bone and canine. These bones belonged to a male who was later named Karabo. On September 4th, Berger and Kibii visited the site again but did not uncover any fossils for several hours until the sun rose higher and made it easier to glimpse the head of a hominid humerus poking out from the wall of a pit. This humerus was attached to an almost-complete hand and was also found near two teeth, all of which belonged to a female hominid of the same species as Karabo. Numerous other hominid fossils were found such as a set of female lumbar vertebrae (discovered January 17th, 2010), an adult female pelvic ilium (uncovered January 27th of the same year) and a juvenile cranium and mandible (Morris 2010, 1). All these hominid fossils have been identified as being the same species, a new species of Australopithecus called Australopithecus sediba.
Relevance
The Australopithecus sediba findings at Malapa Cave are just some of many important discoveries in human evolution at the Cradle of Humankind. Other than the fossils being distinguishable enough from other types of hominids to be considered a new species, they also have an interesting set of morphological traits which are a combination of primitive and derived characteristics. A. sediba resembles Australopithecus africanus the most, with long arms and small brain size, but also has parts that are more similar to Homo species, such as the shape of the pelvis and ankle joint, as well as the fact that the long thumb and short fingers are indicative of the ability to execute a precision grip (Spoor 2011, 44). No tools were found alongside the fossils, but A. sediba most likely used their precision grip with sticks, animal bones and perhaps early stone tools to procure food (Dorey 2019). Their mixture of primitive and derived traits has led many researchers to question the placement of A. sediba in the timeline of human evolution. Judging by the characteristic Homo traits present in the species, many have speculated that A. sediba is the ancestor species of Homo erectus (rather than the ancestor species being Homo habilis or Homo rudolfensis) (Spoor 2011, 44). However, others disagree and believe A. sediba to be solely connected to A. africanus (Kimbel 2017, 94). Another factor that complicates the discussion is the fact that the fossils found at Malapa have been estimated to be 1.977 ± 0.002 million years old, while a fossil attributed to Homo found in Hadar, Ethiopia has been dated around 2.35 million years old (Spoor 2011, 44). However, some researchers do not think that Homo fossils should be dated over 2 mya. Given this, Dr. Berger has proposed the possibility that his findings at Malapa were of a late-surviving population who were, in fact, ancestors of Homo (Spoor 2011, 44). These hypotheses have yet to be proven, but the debate continues as to where Australopithecus sediba can be placed in the complex history of human evolution.
SITE 2: The Swartkrans Cave
AUTHOR: Yunuhen Moguel
LOCATION: The Swartkrans Formation is found in the Cradle of Humankind (UNESCO’s) World Heritage Site, which is located in the province of Gauteng, South Africa (Shaw 2011). (-25.90472, 27.79569)
The Swartkrans Cave on the map
AGE: 2 million years BP
Context
The Swartkrans Cave was discovered in 1948 (Odes et al. 2016, 2). It is located about 40 kilometres Northwest of Johannesburg, in the province of Gauteng in South Africa (2). Due to its rich and diverse array of faunal and hominin remains, as well as of primary evidence of Homo-pyrotechnology, Swartkrans is considered to be amongst the foremost paleo-caves of Southern Africa (2). The topography of the location consists of shallow wooded valley grasslands in close proximity to water sources, such as the Blaauwbank river (2).The site developed as a phreatic maze cave whose geology is predominantly composed of dolomitic limestone ridges and rocky outrocks (Pickering et al. 2016, 1; Odes et al. 2016, 2; UNESCO, 2020, 1). The Plio-Pleistocene site is composed of five Members separated by erosional discontinuities and whose geological ages range from 2.25 to 1 million years old—based on biostratigraphy and uranium dating (Pickering et al. 2016, 2-3; Wood 2013, 759). For the most part access to the site is closed to the public, albeit there are occasional tours for small groups which are guided by active researchers of the location (Shaw 2013, 1).
History
Swartkrans was initially a mining site for lime during 1930’s, which resulted in the exposure of the outcrops (Wood 2013, 759). This uncovering eventually led African paleontologists John T. Robinson and Robert Broom to explore and excavate the breccias of the site in November 1948 (759). The first excavation was partly funded by the University of California’s Africa Expedition and concluded in November 1949 (759). Robinson and Broom continued to do ex situ excavation of the breccia remnants until 1951 and 1953 respectively (Nigro et al. 2003, 318). Furthermore, in 1965, African paleontologist C.K Brain decided to reopen Swartkrans to continue with the explorations (Wood 2013, 759). During the seven following years, Brain focused exclusively in classifying potential hominin remains and material culture from the pink breccia dumps left by the miners (759). This was followed by an additional 7-year period of surface clearing and preparation for in situ excavations, which finally took place from 1979-1985 (759). These actions were followed by the mapping and gridding of the site, which was initially thought to comprise 2 Members, namely the pink breccia—which further divides into the Hanging Remnant and the Lower bank due to being the most extensive Member—and the brown breccia (759). New active research restarted in 2001, and three additional Members were further recognized—Member 3, Member 4, the Talus Cone Deposit (TCD) and the—for a total of five sedimentary units designated as the Swartkrans Formation (Nigro et al. 2003, 318 ; Wood 2013, 759). The most recent discovery was an additional subunit of Member 1, namely the Lower Bank East Extension, which was discovered in 2009 by Sutton and his team (Pickering et al. 2016, 2).
Relevance
Swartkrans has produced over 400 specimens of the genus Homo and Paranthropus and was the first location to place both species as coexisting at some point of their life history (Nigro et al. 2003, 1; Odes et al. 2016, 2). In addition, over 400,000 faunal specimens almost 900 stone tools and 85 bone tools have been identified in the site (Nigro et al. 2003, 1). Among the most relevant discoveries that have been found in Member 1 of the Formation are a large Oldowan assemblage consisting of 1849 Oldowan stone tools fragments, the fossils SK 847—cranium fragments—and SK 27—a partial maxilla—both of which pertain to the species Homo habilis, and the fossil SX 5020—a hand bone—belonging to the species Paranthropus robustus (Kuman et al. 2018, 54; Susman 1988, 782). Taking into account that the criteria used to assess a well-developed precision grip (straight proximal phalanges) and a more human-like hand morphology (which includes the presence of a flexor pollicis longus muscle) holds true for both species, Homo sapiens and Paranthropus robustus, the Oldowan stone tools found in Member 1 could have belonged to either (Susman 1988, 782). Nonetheless, considering that after the extinction of the species Paranthropus robustus, the production of stone tools did not halt, it can be inferred that the toolmakers were the members of the early Homo species (Kuman et al. 2018, 67). Lastly, there are no major patterns of variation in bone size and shape along the millions of years time span in which they were used, thus providing an insight into the subsistence patterns of the Homo sapiens, which do not seem to have varied to a great extent (d'Errico & Backwell 2003, 1572).
SITE 3: The Dinaledi Chamber, Rising Star Cave
AUTHOR: Danielle Vivian
LOCATION: The Dinaledi Chamber is a part of the Rising Star Cave that is found in the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Cradle of Humankind in Gauteng, South Africa. (-26.0217, 27.72011)
The Rising Star Cave on the map
AGE: 3 million years BP
Context
The Dinaledi Chamber is found in Rising Star Cave in the Bloubank River valley (Dirks et al. 2017). This cave is part of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site that hosts multiple Plio-Pleistocene cave deposits such as Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai and Coopers. The Rising Star Cave system in particular spans several kilometres and consists of multiple mapped passageways with intact roofs that appear to be impenetrable without great enough openings to allow access from the surface to below. The cave itself is approximately 3 million years old with the flowstone which contained the fossils of Homo naledi being from between 236 thousand and 414 thousand years ago (Dirks et al. 2017). Within the Dinaledi Chamber, only flowstone and fine-grained sediment can be found. The chamber itself can only be accessed by climbing 15m from the antechamber, The Dragon's Back Chamber, and then via a vertical fissure (Dirks et al. 2015). The hominins found in the chamber would have lived in equatorial Africa during the Pleistocene.epoch (Berger et al. 2017). This area is thought to have been made up of mostly savannah and savannah-woodland. Today, the Cradle of Humankind is part of the Rocky Highland Grassland, known for its diverse flora and fauna (Maropeng 2020).
History
It was explored in the 1980s by the Speleological Exploration Club (Courbon 2005). On the 13th of September 2013, Rick Hunter and Steven Tucker, who were part of this club, found the narrow chute that brought them into the Dinaledi Chamber. This chute is known as Superman's Crawl (Dirks et al. 2015). On October 1st that year, photos that they had taken were shown to Pedro Boshoff and Lee Burger from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (Doussy 2013). The way that the bones that they found were arranged suggested that someone had been in the chamber decades earlier. (Dirks et al. 2015) Burger organized an expedition on the 7th of November 2013. Because the entrance was so narrow, the team had to be made up of people who could pass through the 18cm opening. The 6 female paleoanthropologists that were chosen were Hannah Morris, Marina Elliot, Becca Peixotto, Alia Gurtov, Lindsay Eaves and Elen Feuerriegel. They have been dubbed the "underground astronauts." During their expedition, over 1200 fossil elements were discovered, which came from what was thought at the time to be at least a dozen individuals. It was such a successful dig that only 20 bones of the human body were not found. By April 2014, a further 575 fossil elements were found, increasing the total amount to 1754 (Howley 2015).
Relevance
The sole discovery in the Dinaledi Chamber was that of Homo naledi (Berger et al. 2015). The 15 individuals found provided a unique insight into hominid evolution as they showed to be relatively recently dated whilst presenting primitive feature that were previously thought to have been long extinct. The hand of Homo naledi itself can reveal a lot. It contains a thumb and wrist that is morphologically shared with Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, but the finger bones are long and curved which suggests a more arboreal lifestyle(Berger et al. 2015). The foot is adapted to be more like the modern human's and which would suggest bipedalism (Berger et al. 2015). However, their shoulders, pelvises, proximal femurs and cranial morphology are more primitive (Berger et al. 2015). Direct dating of these fossils dated them to between 236 thousand years ago and 335 thousand years ago (Berger et al. 2015). This means that this species were around during the middle Pleistocene. The dating of Homo naledi shows a previously unknown existence of Hominin species during this time other than modern humans and their close, large-brained relatives. With regards to their diet, Homo naledi's jaw muscles were smaller than Australopithecines, meaning that they didn't eat any hard to process food such as grasses or sedges (Berger et al. 2015). They also had chips found in many of their teeth, suggesting hard and abrasive food. Due to the restrictive nature of the site that they were found in, it was hard to construct a paleoenvironment as there were few botanic remains.
Although the grasping ability of their hands suggested that they may have been able to use tools like Homo sapiens did, none were found at the site (Berger et al. 2015). The most useful hand bone found was the almost full right hand of an adult, and it revealed a lot about Homo naledi. This hand had a long and sturdy thumb and a wrist morphology- similar to that of modern humans and Homo neanderthalensis- that suggests a capability of tool manufacturing and use (Berger et al. 2015). Despite these aspects suggesting lifestyle common with modern humans, the rest of the hand suggests that some aspects of a more primitive lifestyle remained. Their fingerbones, which are long and curved, suggests that they were still frequent climbers (Berger et al. 2015). These discoveries regarding Homo naledi indicate a transition between Pleistocene sapiens and non-sapiens. Additionally, this introduces many questions with regards to human evolution and shows how much more we need to discover to construct a true timeline of Hominin evolution.
SITE 4: The Sterkfontein Caves
AUTHOR: Ophelia Roswell
LOCATION: The Sterkfontein Cave formation is found in the Cradle of Humankind (UNESCO’s) World Heritage Site, in Gauteng, South Africa. (-26.01664, 27.73271)
The Sterkfontein Caves on the map
AGE: Formed as early as 20-million years BP
Context
The Sterkfontein Caves are about 40 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa and were formed as early as 20-million years ago in dolomitic limestone. Like most caves, Sterkfontein was formed by weakly acidic rainwater seeping into soluble rock through the soil and dissolving it in the process. Paleoanthropologists discovered numerous hominid and other animal fossils within these caves, dating back more than 4-million years ago. Some of the most significant discoveries were STS 5 known as “Mrs. Ples”, a 2.1-million-year-old Australopithecus africanus skull, and StW 573 nicknamed “Little Foot”, a nearly complete 3.67-million-year-old Australopithecus africanus skeleton (Maropeng 2020).
Fossil studies have concluded that based on both Australopithecus post-cranial functional morphology and the apelike features of the fossilized hands (such as strongly the longitudinally curved proximal phalanges) that some Pleistocene hominids from Sterkfontein were arboreally adept, much like Homo Naledi. This finding is consistent with the paleoenvironments of Sterkfontein (Pickering et al. 2018, 99). Fossilized pollen and plant material discovered in the region indicate that Sterkfontein was once a tropical rainforest (Heluler 2015, 484). Furthermore, trees were potential sources of food and shelter for Sterkfontein's species and predation appears to be a likely selection pressure that maintained climbing capabilities that were indicated in Australopithecus’s post-cranial morphology (Pickering et al. 2018, 99). Today, the Cradle of Humankind area supports a diverse variety of plants and animals including various types of well-established grassland (Maropeng 2020).
History
Sterkfontein was discovered by Italian lime prospector, Gulgimo Martinaglia, in 1896. He was more interested in the lime and guano the caves had to offer, and due to the dynamite used to mine throughout the 20th century, most of Sterkfontein’s dolomite formations were destroyed. Then, in 1936, paleontologist Dr. Robert Broom began collecting fossils from the miners. He and his colleague, John Robinson, continued to excavate using controlled explosions from 1945 until 1951. In 1947, Broom found the first hominid fossil in Sterkfontein, STS 5. In 1995 archaeologist, Ronald Clarke found StW 573. Soon after, in 1957, Dr. CK Brain found stone tools in a miners’ dump and developed a grid system that enabled them to record the horizontal and vertical positions of the excavated fossils and artifacts to excavate the area with his team (Maropeng 2020).
Sterkfontein has produced the oldest dated stone tools in Southern Africa, some are up to almost 2-million years old (Maropeng 2020). However, ongoing stratigraphic research on the formation demonstrates that radiometrically dated flowstones are intrusive and therefore do not provide accurate ages for fossils. Thus, it is difficult to estimate the ages of these fossils based solely on flowstone-derived dates (Pickering et al. 2018, 90).
Relevance
Sterkfontein has the highest concentration of fossils within the Cradle of Humankind. The site has also produced more early hominid fossils than any other site on Earth (Maropeng 2020).
The famous STS 5 fossil was first thought to be a non-fully grown adolescent individual. STS 5 was paired with another partial skeleton (STS 14) and was proposed to have belonged to the same individual (based on their spatial positions). However, research has concluded that STS 5 represents a fully grown adult Australopithecus africanus cranium and confirms that there is no evidence to support the idea that they represent a single individual (Bonmatí, Arsuaga, and Lorenzo 2008, 12).
Additionally, there was a debate about whether STS 5 is the cranium of a small male or a large female individual. This is because Australopithecus africanus is a moderately sexually dimorphic species (Lockwood 1999, 123). By using the relatively large measurement for the canine alveolar diameter (published originally by Broom et al.) and re-examining craniofacial data, the researchers concluded that STS 5 is a small male.
The specimens discovered within Sterkfontein reveal the presence of morphologies that demonstrate the hands of these hominids lacked humanlike manual dexterity. As manual dexterity is essential for manufacturing stone tools, the absence of lithic artifacts from the area is consistent with this conclusion. In fact, the hands of StW 639 (Member 4) and StW 664 were not capable of using humanlike grips (such as the precision grip) that is fundamental in creating/utilizing basic tools (Pickering et al. 2018, 97). The earliest stone tools appear at Sterkfontein in the Oldowan unit of Member 5 in 2.18 ± 0.21 Ma. Which places them at a time similar to that found elsewhere in South Africa, at the Swartkans and Wonderwerk caves (Granger et al. 2015, 1). The fossils, both found in the Sterkfontein Caves and within the Cradle of Humankind, reveal much more about the precursors of modern humans, Homo sapiens.
CONCLUSION
Hand bones are a useful asset for looking at the history of tool use in hominin evolution. This is especially evident in the fossils found at sites in the Cradle of Humankind because of what can be inferred by the Out of Africa theory. Therefore, the findings that have been discussed from the Malapa Caves, Swartrkrans, the Rising Star caves and Sterkfontein are highly important pieces of the archaeological puzzle that is human evolution.
A good example of the information that hand bones can provide is displayed in the instance of Australopithecus sediba found in the Malapa Cave whose long thumbs and short fingers suggest an ability to grip onto objects and thus use tools such as sticks, animal bones and perhaps stone tools. In Swartkrans, similarly useful fossils were discovered of Homo habilis that indicate not only the use of stone tools, but a similar, unchanged subsistence pattern. However, not all of these findings are straightforward as shown by Homo Naledi found in the Dinaledi Chamber of the Rising Star caves. The hand bones of this fossil show both primitive and modern features, with the long fingers being indicative of climbing whilst the robust thumb shows an ability to use tools. Whilst these are more challenging to assess due to the polarities of the discoveries, they are nonetheless essential parts of our understanding of evolution as they reveal a previously unknown transition between climbing and tool use. Lastly, the Australothipecus africanus hand bones found in the Sterkfontein cave formations show the lack of ability to use tools that were prior to this transitional phase. Their bones showed a lack of dexterity that would have been needed to use these tools and which is evident in modern humans and our tool-using ancestors.
When combining all of these findings from the Cradle of Humankind and assessing the hand bones, the greater picture of how hominins evolved to use tools as we do today is created and thus we have a better understanding of our hominin evolution.
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