Taphonomy of a South African cave: geological and hydrological influences on the GD 1 fossil assemblage at Gondolin,a Plio-Pleistocene paleocave system in the Northwest Province,South Africa |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Biomedical Sciences, Grand Valley State University, 218 Padnos Hall, Allendale, MI 49506, USA;2. Human Origins Group, Department of Anatomy, School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales, Kensington 2052, Sydney, Australia;3. Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, S1 4ET, UK;4. School of Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, 7 York Road, Parktown, Johannesburg 2193, Republic of South Africa;5. Departments of Anatomy and Neurobiology/Anthropology, Washington University Medical School, Box 8108, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA;1. CNRS UPR 2147, 44 rue de l’Amiral Mouchez, 75014 Paris, France;2. Department of Anthropology, Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA;3. Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, Museum Hill, PO Box 40658-00100, Nairobi, Kenya;4. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Human Evolution, Leipzig, Germany;1. Sorbonne Universités – CR2P – MNHN, CNRS, UPMC-Paris6, CP 38, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, 8 rue Buffon, F-75231 PARIS Cedex 05, France;2. Department of Anthropology, California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse Dr., San Francisco, CA 94118, USA;3. Department of Anthropology, Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA;4. Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA;1. Department of Paleobotany and Paleoecology, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, OH, USA;2. Department of Anthropology, Center for the Study of Human Origins, New York University, New York, NY, USA;1. Australian Archaeomagnetism Laboratory, Department of Archaeology, Environment and Community Planning, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Melbourne Campus, Bundoora, VIC 3086, Australia;2. Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia;1. Computer-Assisted Palaeoanthropology Team, UMR 5288 CNRS-Université de Toulouse (Paul Sabatier), 37 Allées Jules Guesde, 31000 Toulouse, France;2. Ditsong National Museum of Natural History, 432 Paul Kruger Street, Pretoria 001, South Africa;3. Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, PO WITS, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa;4. Laboratoire TRACES, UMR 5608 CNRS-Université de Toulouse (Le Mirail), Maison de la Recherche, 31058 Toulouse Cedex 9, France;5. School of Geography Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa;6. Institut National d''Archéologie Préventive, 7 rue de Madrid, 75008 Paris, France;7. Statistics and Probabilities Team, Institute of Mathematics of Toulouse, UMR 5219 CNRS-Université de Toulouse (Paul Sabatier), 31062 Toulouse, France;8. Institut d''Anatomie Normale et Pathologique, Faculté de Médecine de Strasbourg, 4 rue Kirschleger, 67000 Strasbourg, France;9. Swiss Light Source, TOMCAT, Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland;10. South African Nuclear Energy Corporation, Pelindaba, North West Province, South Africa;11. Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany;12. Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London, UK;1. French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap), 561 rue Etienne Lenoir, km delta, 30900 Nîmes, France;2. University of Toulouse, UMR 5608 du CNRS (TRACES), Maison de la Recherche, 5 Allées Antonio Matchado, F-31058 Toulouse, France;3. School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, South Africa;4. Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, South Africa;5. University of Bordeaux, UMR 5185 ADES, CNRS, 3 Maison des Suds, 12 Esplanade des Antilles, F-33607 Pessac cedex, France;6. University of Bordeaux, CENBG, UMR 5797, F-33170 Gradignan, France;7. CNRS, IN2P3, CENBG, UMR 5797, F-33170 Gradignan, France |
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| Abstract: | Occasional excavation of in situ and ex situ deposits at the formerly mined Gondolin paleocave system has yielded large and diverse samples of Plio-Pleistocene faunas, including isolated hominin and non-hominin primate remains. In 2003, new excavations into naturally decalcified, in situ sediments near the GD 1 datum point near the northwest corner of the cave system were undertaken. This paper describes the recovered faunal remains, taphonomy of the assemblage, and the geological and paleomagnetic context of the GD 1 deposits. The deposits represent a series of inter-stratified speleothem, in-washed sediments and talus deposits we suggest date to a time period prior to, and just after, the Olduvai normal-polarity event at around 1.7–1.8 Ma. Surface sediments and clasts were introduced into the cave by rain water runoff entering a vertically-oriented entrance that had formed along a rift in the area of GD 1. The faunal assemblage consists primarily of fragmentary diaphyseal fragments and isolated teeth. Taxonomically, the small collection of specifically identifiable bovid and equid fossils is generally consistent with remains previously excavated from in situ deposits in the Gondolin paleocave system (GD 2) and dated to around 1.8 Ma; however, the depositional histories of these two assemblages from Gondolin are remarkably different. The preservation and relative proportions of recovered skeletal elements at GD 1 is consistent with these materials having been initially accumulated outside the karstic system near the vertical cave entrance, and then later hydrologically sorted and deposited inside the cave. The sporadic to continuous water flow into the northwest corner of the cave system during the Pleistocene gradually decalcified the excavated fossilbearing breccias and further modified the composition and spatial distribution of the fossil assemblage by introducing potentially younger deposits and skeletal materials. This study highlights the variation in taphonomic processes that can occur within a single cave system, and the complex pre- and postdepositional geological and hydrological processes that can influence the taphonomic history of South African Plio-Pleistocene karstic fossil assemblages. |
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