Wits Evolutionary Studies Institute (ESI)

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    Osteogenic tumour in Australopithecus sediba: Earliest hominin evidence for neoplastic disease
    (Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)., 2016-07) Randolph-Quinney, P.S.; Williams, S.A.; Steyn, M.; Meyer, M.R.; Smilg, J.S.; Churchill, S.E.; Odes, E.J.; Augustine, T.; Tafforeau, P.; Berger, L.R.
    We describe the earliest evidence for neoplastic disease in the hominin lineage. This is reported from the type specimen of the extinct hominin Australopithecus sediba from Malapa, South Africa, dated to 1.98 million years ago. The affected individual was male and developmentally equivalent to a human child of 12 to 13 years of age. A penetrating lytic lesion affected the sixth thoracic vertebra. The lesion was macroscopically evaluated and internally imaged through phase-contrast X-ray synchrotron microtomography. A comprehensive differential diagnosis was undertaken based on gross- and micro-morphology of the lesion, leading to a probable diagnosis of osteoid osteoma. These neoplasms are solitary, benign, osteoid and bone-forming tumours, formed from well-vascularised connective tissue within which there is active production of osteoid and woven bone. Tumours of any kind are rare in archaeological populations, and are all but unknown in the hominin record, highlighting the importance of this discovery. The presence of this disease at Malapa predates the earliest evidence of malignant neoplasia in the hominin fossil record by perhaps 200 000 years.
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    The possibility of lichen growth on bones of Homo naledi: Were they exposed to light?
    (Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), 2016-08) Thackeray, J.F.
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    Further evidence for eagle predation of, and feeding damage on, the Taung child.
    (ASSAf, 2007-11) Berger, L.R.; McGraw, W.S.
    We present new evidence supporting the hypothesis that a large raptor was responsible for the death of the c. 2.0-Myr-old Taung child, holotype of the early hominin species Australopithecus africanus. We compare the Taung child's skull with those of monkeys killed and eaten by modern crowned eagles, Stephanoaetus coronatus, in the Ivory Coast's Tai Forest. Close inspection of primate feeding remains from these large, powerful raptors reveals scratch marks in the orbital, frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital regions. Scratches similar in size and distribution are also present on the Taung child's skull. The new taphonomic evidence, combined with previously recognized similarities in breakage patterns and other assemblage characteristics, bolsters the case that a large bird of prey was responsible for the death of the juvenile hominin from Taung.
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    Taphonomic analysis of the faunal assemblage associated with the hominins (Australopithecus sediba) from the early pleistocene cave deposits of Malapa, South Africa.
    (Public Library of Science, 2015-06-10) Val, A.; Dirks, P.H.G.M.; Backwell, L.R.; Berger, L.R.; D'Errico, F.
    Here we present the results of a taphonomic study of the faunal assemblage associated with the hominin fossils (Australopithecus sediba) from the Malapa site. Results include estimation of body part representation, mortality profiles, type of fragmentation, identification of breakage patterns, and microscopic analysis of bone surfaces. The diversity of the faunal spectrum, presence of animals with climbing proclivities, abundance of complete and/or articulated specimens, occurrence of antimeric sets of elements, and lack of carnivore-modified bones, indicate that animals accumulated via a natural death trap leading to an area of the cave system with no access to mammalian scavengers. The co-occurrence of well preserved fossils, carnivore coprolites, deciduous teeth of brown hyaena, and some highly fragmented and poorly preserved remains supports the hypothesis of a mixing of sediments coming from distinct chambers, which collected at the bottom of the cave system through the action of periodic water flow. This combination of taphonomic features explains the remarkable state of preservation of the hominin fossils as well as some of the associated faunal material.
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    Geological and taphonomic context for the new hominin species Homo naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa.
    (eLife Sciences Publications Ltd, 2015-09) Dirks, P.H.G.M.; Berger, L.R.; Roberts, E.M.; Peixotto, B.; Tucker, S.; Kramers, J.D.; Hawks, J.; Randolph-Quinney, P.S.; Elliott, M.; Musiba, C.M.; Churchill, S.; de Ruiter, D.J.; Schmid, P.; Backwell, L.R.; Belyanin, G.A.; Boshoff, P.; Hunter, K.L.; Feuerriegel, E.M.; Gurtov, A.; Harrison, J.G.; Hunter, R.; Kruger, A.; Morris, H.; Makhubela, T.V.
    We describe the physical context of the Dinaledi Chamber within the Rising Star cave, South Africa, which contains the fossils of Homo naledi. Approximately 1550 specimens of hominin remains have been recovered from at least 15 individuals, representing a small portion of the total fossil content. Macro-vertebrate fossils are exclusively H. naledi, and occur within clay-rich sediments derived from in situ weathering, and exogenous clay and silt, which entered the chamber through fractures that prevented passage of coarser-grained material. The chamber was always in the dark zone, and not accessible to non-hominins. Bone taphonomy indicates that hominin individuals reached the chamber complete, with disarticulation occurring during/after deposition. Hominins accumulated over time as older laminated mudstone units and sediment along the cave floor were eroded. Preliminary evidence is consistent with deliberate body disposal in a single location, by a hominin species other than Homo sapiens, at an as-yet unknown date.
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    Palaeo-ecology of the Sterkfontein hominids: a review and synthesis
    (Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 1991) McKee, Jeffrey K
    Excavations at the Sterkfontein hominid fossil site have yielded a rich and revealing faunal assemblage. Evolutionary transitions are evident in early hominids and associated fauna between the times represented by Members 4 and 5. Member 4 has yielded a large and variable sample of Australopithecus africanus as well as evidence of considerable species diversity among the artiodactyls, carnivores and primates. The appearance of early Homo along with stone and bone tools in Member 5 coincides with a reduction of species representation in the orders of larger mammals as well as with the occurrence of new derived species and apparent extinctions. Three hypotheses have been suggested to account for the trends seen in the hominid-bearing members of the Sterkfontein Formation. The 'Climatic Change Hypothesis' accounts for the evolutionary trends by the causal factors of global and local cooling and aridification with evidence of savanna-grasslands supplanting an earlier environment with a denser cover of vegetation. The 'Taphonomic Hypothesis' explains changes in relative species representation at Sterkfontein in terms of the bone-accumulating agents; in Member 4 primary carnivores were largely responsible for the deposition of large mammalian fauna, whereas the scavenging activities of early Homo would have accounted for much of the bone and all of the artefacts found in Member 5. A third proposition is the 'Species Interaction Hypothesis', a derivative of the ' Red-Queen Hypothesis'; here the dynamics of species interaction, including competition and commensalism among hominids, carnivores and cercopithecids, propel the evolutionary changes and cause the extinctions. These hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, but the relative effects of the factors involved must be verified or refuted with better chronological controls and further analyses of the African fossil sites. The Sterkfontein Formation represents a microcosm in which various scenarios of African mammalian evolution can be tested.
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    The palaeontology of Haasgat a preliminary account
    (Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 1991) Keyser, Andre W
    Haasgat is a cave on the steep western slope of the upper reach of the Witwatersrand Spruit, on the farm Leeuwenkloof 480 lQ, in the Brits District. It was heavily mined for flowstone (calcite). The cave contains a deposit offossiliferous cave silt and breccia that was partially removed by the miners and dumped on the steep slopes of the valley. The original entrance was probably a shallow inclined pit, leading into an upper chamber and then into the preserved depository. Both porcupines and carnivores served as accumulating agents for the bones. Fossils of the primates Parapapio and Cercopifhecoides, hyaena (Chasmaporthetes), fox, porcupines, several species of bovids and two species of Hyrax have been recovered. An insufficient number of fossils have been prepared to determine the age of the deposit with certainty. The deposit was provisionally thought to be of Pliocene age because of the occurrence of Parapapio. At this stage it would be unwise to correlate this occurrence with any other caves in this age range. It is concluded that the cave silts were deposited by flash floods, under a wetter climatic regime than that of the present.
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    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.