Journal article
The age of homo naledi and associated sediments in the rising star cave, South Africa
PHGM Dirks, EM Roberts, H Hilbert-Wolf, JD Kramers, J Hawks, A Dosseto, M Duval, M Elliott, M Evans, R Grun, J Hellstrom, AIR Herries, R Joannes-Boyau, TV Makhubela, CJ Placzek, J Robbins, C Spandler, J Wiersma, J Woodhead, LR Berger
Elife | Published : 2017
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.24231
Abstract
New ages for flowstone, sediments and fossil bones from the Dinaledi Chamber are presented. We combined optically stimulated luminescence dating of sediments with U-Th and palaeomagnetic analyses of flowstones to establish that all sediments containing Homo naledi fossils can be allocated to a single stratigraphic entity (sub-unit 3b), interpreted to be deposited between 236 ka and 414 ka. This result has been confirmed independently by dating three H. naledi teeth with combined U-series and electron spin resonance (US-ESR) dating. Two dating scenarios for the fossils were tested by varying the assumed levels of222Rn loss in the encasing sediments: a maximum age scenario provides an average ..
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Awarded by National Geographic Society