Carbon dating shows that hominin bones, the remains of human-like ancestors, might be older than conceived. A mistake is that these fossils are a million years older, and it has implications for human evolution in the cradle of humanity in general.
The new age of the well-known Australopithecus fossils for Sterkfontein Caves found in South Africa will have ripples in paleo research on the history of humanity and where it began.
Reassessing Human Evolution
Ancient fossils are about four million years old when found in caves in South Africa. The Sterkfontein site was studied in 1936 when the first full skeleton of an early hominin of the Australopithecus was found, reported Sci Tech Daily.
From then on, more of the same fossils came from cave infills that included well-known samples like the Little Foot and the cranium called Mrs. Ples.
The infill called 'Member 4' is where most of the relevant specimens were found and dug out, where many fossils were found.
In the last 56 years that the University of the Witwatersrand studied, the Sterkfontein was done, but the age of the Member 4 part was not questioned. But based on the age estimation, that its 2 million years back, that is earlier than 3 million years ago. Significant changes in the history of human evolution shows older than thought.
The study about the controversy over the carbon dating age of early hominin bones was published in PNAS. It gives a different age of the fossils from Member 4 (Sterkfontein) and Jacovec Cavern. This included more specimens from a deeper cave that could be human-like ancestors.
Corrections on the established age of Member 4 fossils are 3.4-3.6 million years; one conclusion is that hominins from Sterkfontein existed with early Australopithecines, like the Australopithecus afarensis living in east Africa, according to Dominic Stratford, director of research at the caves, noted EurekAlert.
Changes in the assumed age of the fossils will impact the actual age based on how they got into the cave.
Prior dating of Member 4 relied on calcite flowstone deposits discovered inside the cave fill, but careful observations reveal that the flowstone is younger than the cave fill, which means that the previous dating significantly understates the age of the fossils citing Science Daily.
Stratford commented reevaluating the age of the Australopithecus fossils from Sterkfontein Member 4 has major implications for South Africa's place in the hominin transition stage. Younger examples of early humans are Paranthropus and the genus Homo appeared between 2.8 and 2 million years ago.
One speculation based on the date is that the South African Australopithecus species could not be human predecessors, so the genus Homo and Paranthropus came to be in eastern Africa.
Hominin Fossils Age Affect Evolution
Evolving a million years earlier shows Australopithecines were present in the Cradle of Humankind a bit earlier, before human predecessors. They are the first pre-human bipeds to live in Africa too.
Another consideration with the age of the fossils is that Mrs. Ple is older by a million years, there are early hominins like Lucy in eastern Africa, added Stratford.
Researchers said that the carbon dating used on the hominin fossils that might be human-like ancestors is incorrect due to the 1-million-year gap; that is too early.