Bender, Patrick Alan2016-07-182016-07-182016-07-18http://hdl.handle.net/10539/20649A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science. March, 1990.The prcesen.tstudy examinee all the fully prepared Maka~ansgat Limeworks' fossil suid sped1l1p..l1s. Thirty undescribed and three uneatalogued 'spe~imell~' were ad{~g to the previously'dt'tcdttl,Q. ,; .h-· ..~ ,cpUectiqp. The 'b:anial, morphology of these suids is compared to the extant southern African- Suk.<ie, Potamochoeru« porcus (bushpiib and, Fh~coChoern$ f~tMopic~s(warthog), and oth~r, relevant extant ~ - ~ and fossil genera, .A sys~ern of measurements was ,(ed to .facilitate tile~des'Criptl6nand analysis of the .~) LimeWotks fgssils and in the cbtiiparisous with the other snids, 0 () It (I \\ f, " :the ta:xonJ~y and phylogeny of the Lhneworks spe('Jes Potamocho5Jides shawi is revised, It is shown "to be di$~inct from Mctridiocl;oetys andrews/:. AD cladogratn.;illustratblg (he crplationships betWeen ~\ f) c» specific Pllo-Pleistocene African. suid genera is pres~nted, and iIi is concluded that Potampcltr~~roides is ;.l~ 0". ~ (I.. '. _/?_ -,l) c-, more primitive and therefore possibly Older than previously thought. Since Potamoc1toeroidt!s"ana th~ '() Makapansgat hominid rema!ijs occur in the same geological unit, it is suggested that Australopitllecus o (I , . (,) . , ajriccmus, may also be older than previously considered. I) (1 " .. ,':-:::;z"\.:- .. _ _ ' .' _ _ .o'_ .' 0 The pruaeoec\'}logy,and taphonomy of the Limeworks Suidae is examined and discussed. Indlcntions q, ) ar,~ that the suMs were brought into the cave mainly by predators, "including hyaenas, {~Pds'and the " if';" hominidAuttralOj)itllecut a!ncamls. o ~)", ~ ~\ (I o o (( o D 0' o () o ',) ;';_'! II (_{ (/ " In an 014 hut with a tin roof on a univer~ity campus inJohannesburg, a magician presides over a room [) full of bones. Row upon toW of mandibles, femurs, ~')ose teeth, and. horn cores lie' on shelves and trestle tables, are neatly arranged in drawers, or overflow rotc .wooden boxes on the flo~f' There are " \j tens of thousands of skeletqI fragments, all neatly "numbered • the remains of more antelope, pig, and " giraffe than anyone has seen together since the time of the great migrations. The bones are suprislngly (:i heavy. Eac.~has lain so long beneath the earth that all its cells have been replaced by calcite or silica. \\. ". .\" c Soil stp[f has seeped into the::tissue; keeping its precise shape, but taking its place, turning it into c)j li:mestop~•.;J'hey/tre all fgssUs, roWs of Gone turned to stone by time, "(Watson 1982, p6).enThesis