Palaeontologia africana

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ISSN (print): 0078-8554 ISSN (electronic): 2410-4418 For queries regarding content of Palaeontologia africana collections please contact Jonah Choiniere by email : jonah.choiniere@wits.ac.za or Tel : 011 717 6684

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1990 - 19932

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Author: search.filters.author.Thackeray, J Francis

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    Variability in shape of the dental arcade of Homo sapiens in Late Pleistocene and modern samples from southern Africa
    (Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 1993) Thackeray, J Francis; Kieser, J A
    Mandibles are among the most common skeletal elements of Late Pleistocene specimens of Homo sapiens from southern African sites (notably Klasies River Mouth and Border Cave). For this reason mandibles have been selected for study to compare with samples drawn from modem populations (including South African negroes, Khoisanoid "Bushmen" and caucasoids). An analysis of shape of the dental arcade, based on the spatial distribution of molars, premolars and canines, indicates that several of the Late Pleistocene samples (including KRM 41815) are outside the range of variation found in modem African and caucasoid populations, and in this respect, cannot be described as "anatomically modem", sensu strictu. There appears to be a trend in the process of modernisation, from very flared dental arcades (notably in the case of the Kabwe skull, representing "archaic" H. sapiens), through moderately flared arcades (as found in Late Pleistocene "nearly modem" samples) towards a less flared condition which is found in modern Africans and caucasoids.
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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.