TY - JOUR
T1 - Age and context of mid-Pliocene hominin cranium from Woranso-Mille, Ethiopia
AU - Saylor, Beverly Z.
AU - Gibert, Luis
AU - Deino, Alan
AU - Alene, Mulugeta
AU - Levin, Naomi E.
AU - Melillo, Stephanie M.
AU - Peaple, Mark D.
AU - Feakins, Sarah J.
AU - Bourel, Benjamin
AU - Barboni, Doris
AU - Novello, Alice
AU - Sylvestre, Florence
AU - Mertzman, Stanley A.
AU - Haile-Selassie, Yohannes
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements We thank the Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage for permission to conduct field and laboratory work, the Afar people of Woranso-Millle for their hospitality, and the project’s fieldwork crew members for their tireless support of field activities; M. Atkins and I. Van Orman for assistance with the preparation of tephrochemical samples and J. Fournelle for assistance with their analysis. This research was supported by grants from the Spanish Government CGL2016-79458-P, Catalan Government 2017-SGR 824, the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 659596 and the US National Science Foundation (1124705, 1124716, 1125157, 1125345, 1322017).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
PY - 2019/9/12
Y1 - 2019/9/12
N2 - A fossil hominin cranium was discovered in mid-Pliocene deltaic strata in the Godaya Valley of the northwestern Woranso-Mille study area in Ethiopia. Here we show that analyses of chemically correlated volcanic layers and the palaeomagnetic stratigraphy, combined with Bayesian modelling of dated tuffs, yield an age range of 3.804 ± 0.013 to 3.777 ± 0.014 million years old (mean ± 1σ) for the deltaic strata and the fossils that they contain. We also document deposits of a perennial lake beneath the deltaic sequence. Mammalian fossils associated with the cranium represent taxa that were widespread at the time and data from botanical remains indicate that the vegetation in the lake and delta catchment was predominantly dry shrubland with varying proportions of grassland, wetland and riparian forest. In addition, we report high rates of sediment accumulation and depositional features that are typical of a steep topographic relief and differ from younger Woranso-Mille fossil localities, reflecting the influence of active rift processes on the palaeolandscape.
AB - A fossil hominin cranium was discovered in mid-Pliocene deltaic strata in the Godaya Valley of the northwestern Woranso-Mille study area in Ethiopia. Here we show that analyses of chemically correlated volcanic layers and the palaeomagnetic stratigraphy, combined with Bayesian modelling of dated tuffs, yield an age range of 3.804 ± 0.013 to 3.777 ± 0.014 million years old (mean ± 1σ) for the deltaic strata and the fossils that they contain. We also document deposits of a perennial lake beneath the deltaic sequence. Mammalian fossils associated with the cranium represent taxa that were widespread at the time and data from botanical remains indicate that the vegetation in the lake and delta catchment was predominantly dry shrubland with varying proportions of grassland, wetland and riparian forest. In addition, we report high rates of sediment accumulation and depositional features that are typical of a steep topographic relief and differ from younger Woranso-Mille fossil localities, reflecting the influence of active rift processes on the palaeolandscape.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41586-019-1514-7
DO - 10.1038/s41586-019-1514-7
M3 - Article
C2 - 31462773
AN - SCOPUS:85071674592
SN - 0028-0836
VL - 573
SP - 220
EP - 224
JO - Nature
JF - Nature
IS - 7773
ER -