Wits Evolutionary Studies Institute (ESI)

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Notes on the systematics of micromammals from Sterkfontein, Gauteng, South Africa
(Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 2000) Avery, D M
The micromammalian fauna from Sterkfontein Members 4 , 5E and 6 comprises 34 species. These include six insectivores, three bats, three elephant shrews and 22 rodents. Most of these taxa, or their equivalents, have been previously recorded. Four or five new additions were recovered from deposits probably belonging to Late Pleistocene Member 6, which have previously received little or no attention. Some previously recorded taxa were not found, but this was probably due to differences in identification rather than to the absence of these forms from the sample.
Equus capensis (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) from Elandsfontein
(Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 2000) Eisenmann, Vera
The skull and limb bones collected at Elandsfontein, Cape indicate that E. capensis was different from a Grevy's zebra. The body proportions were similar to those of an extant draft horse (E. caballus) and the skull resembled those of true Cape quaggas and a fossil Algerian plains zebra, E. mauritanicus.
Catalogue of fossil sites at the Buxton Limeworks, Taung
(Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 1994) McKee, Jeffrey K
The Buxton Limeworks, in the Taung district at the southeastern margin of the Kalahari Desert, harbours fossil deposits in the calcareous tufas spanning a time period from the late Pliocene to the present. Many such fossil sites, including the type site of Australopithecus africanus, have been exposed by quarrying and noted by various researchers since 1919. As many of the site locations have been lost in the past due to inadequate records and continued quarrying, an effort was made to relocate previously known sites and to discover new sites. There are now 17 preserved and recognized fossil sites in the Buxton Limeworks, the location and nature of which are documented here for future researchers.
Dinofelis barlowi (Mammalia, Carnivora, Felidae) cranial material from Bolt's Farm, collected by the University of California African expedition
(BERNARD PRICE INSTITUTE FOR PALAEONTOLOGICAL RESEARCH, 1991) Cooke, H B S
The collections made by the University of California African Expedition in 1947-48 at Bolt's Farm, near Sterkfontein, included some fine cranial and postcranial material of Dinofelis barlowi, associated with baboon skeletons and crania suggestive of a natural trap situation. The Dinofelis crania are described and compared with other species of this genus, generally lending support to Hemmer's view of a lineage D. diastemata, D. harlowi, D. piveteaui. The age of the deposit is estimated to be in the vicinity of 2 Ma.
Carnivore activity at Klasies River Mouth: a response to Binford
(Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 1990) Thackeray, J Francis
Environmental and behavioural factors contributed to variability in the relative abundance of Raphicerus (grysbok/steenbok) represented in Late Pleistocene and Holocene deposits at the complex of caves at Klasies River Mouth and at Nelson Bay Cave in the southern Cape Province, South Africa. Binford has used the relative abundance of Raphicerus in an index assumed to measure the degree of hunting by Middle Stone Age hominids. However, the occurrence of relatively high numbers of Raphicerus with leopards and baboons in some layers is likely to have been associated, at least in part, with leopard activity, particularly at times when relatively large ungulates were not common in the palaeoenvironment and when the cave sites were not frequently occupied by hominids with control over fire. Binford's indices are re-assessed in the light of other indices which are designed to identify assemblages that have a relatively high probability of having been accumulated by leopards and/or other carnivores.
New species and a new genus of Hippotragini (Bovidae) from Makapansgat limeworks
(BERNARD PRICE INSTITUTE FOR PALAEONTOLOGICAL RESEARCH, 1987-06-19) Vrba, Elizabeth S
A revision of the Hippotragini from the Makapansgat Limeworks is proposed : a new species of Hippotragus is described, Hippotragus cookei, and fossils previously referred to cf. Oryx gazella (Wells and Cooke, 1956) and Hippotragus gigas (Gentry and Gentry, 1978) are assigned to this species. H. gigas is present in the Pleistocene Member 5, but not in the Pliocene Grey Breccia, Member 3, as had been formerly supposed . A new genus and species from Member 3, Wellsiana torticornuta, tentatively referred to ?Hippotragini, is described based on a frontlet that had been assigned to Damaliscus sp. (aff. albifrons) by Wells and Cooke ( 1956). The horncore piece previously referred to Aepyceros cf. melampus (Wells and Cooke, 1956) may belong to the same species as ?Hippotragini sp. nov. (Gentry, 1986) from the Laetolil Beds, Tanzania. The hippotragine fossils here discussed again emphasize that Makapansgat Member 3 contains a Pliocene assemblage that is more ancient than was originally thought, with particular affinities with the Laetolil Beds and also with the Pinjor Formation of the Siwaliks in India and Pakistan.

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