New early Pleistocene hominin teeth from the Swartkrans Formation, South Africa

Travis Rayne Pickering; Jason L Heaton; Morris B Sutton; Ron J Clarke; Kathleen Kuman; Jess Hutton Senjem; C K Brain

doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.08.005

New early Pleistocene hominin teeth from the Swartkrans Formation, South Africa

J Hum Evol. 2016 Nov:100:1-15. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.08.005.

Authors

Travis Rayne Pickering¹, Jason L Heaton², Morris B Sutton³, Ron J Clarke⁴, Kathleen Kuman³, Jess Hutton Senjem⁵, C K Brain⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 53706, USA; Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, WITS, 2050, South Africa; Plio-Pleistocene Palaeontology Section, Department of Vertebrates, Ditsong National Museum of Natural History (Transvaal Museum), Pretoria, South Africa. Electronic address: tpickering@wisc.edu.
² Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, WITS, 2050, South Africa; Plio-Pleistocene Palaeontology Section, Department of Vertebrates, Ditsong National Museum of Natural History (Transvaal Museum), Pretoria, South Africa; Department of Biology, Birmingham-Southern College, Birmingham, AL, 35245, USA.
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 Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.
⁶ Plio-Pleistocene Palaeontology Section, Department of Vertebrates, Ditsong National Museum of Natural History (Transvaal Museum), Pretoria, South Africa.

PMID: 27765145
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.08.005

Abstract

We describe 14 hominin teeth and tooth fragments excavated recently from Swartkrans Cave (South Africa). The fossils derive from Members 1 (Lower Bank) and 3, from the Member 2/3 interface and from two deposits not yet assigned to member (the "Talus Cone Deposit" and the "Underground North Excavation" [UNE]) of the Swartkrans Formation, and include the first hominin fossil from the UNE, the two smallest Paranthropus robustus deciduous maxillary second molars in the entire hominin fossil record, and one of the smallest P. robustus permanent maxillary second molars from Swartkrans. The small permanent molar is accompanied by another tooth from a different individual but from the same stratigraphic level of the Swartkrans Formation; this second tooth is among, if not, the largest P. robustus permanent maxillary first molars known from anywhere-lending credence to assertions that degrees of body size sexual dimorphism previously ascribed to this species may be underestimated. It is more equivocal whether this evidence also supports hypotheses proposing that P. robustus assemblages from Swartkrans (as well as those from other South African cave sites) formed through the taphonomically biasing actions of large carnivores.

Keywords: Body size sexual dimorphism; Carnivore-collecting hypothesis; Dentition; Paranthropus robustus; Swartkrans Formation.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Caves
Female
Fossils / anatomy & histology*
Hominidae / anatomy & histology*
Male
Paleontology
South Africa
Tooth / anatomy & histology*