title: Geological setting and age of Australopithecus sediba from southern Africa.
abstract: 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 +/- 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.
authors.affiliation: School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia. paul.dirks@jcu.edu.au
authors.forename: Paul H G M
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Dirks
authors.forename: Job M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Kibii
authors.forename: Brian F
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Kuhn
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Steininger
authors.forename: Steven E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Churchill
authors.forename: Jan D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Kramers
authors.forename: Robyn
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pickering
authors.forename: Daniel L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Farber
authors.forename: Anne-Sophie
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Mériaux
authors.forename: Andy I R
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Herries
authors.forename: Geoffrey C P
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: King
authors.forename: Lee R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Berger
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005580:Fossils; D019015:Geologic Sediments; D055593:Geological Phenomena; D015186:Hominidae; D055110:Radiometric Dating; D013019:South Africa