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Published (Version of record)CC BY V4.0, Open Access
Published (Version of record)CC BY V4.0, Open
Journal article
The challenges of direct dating of fossil teeth from the Australopithecus africanus, Taung Child type site, South Africa
Quaternary geochronology, Vol.90, pp.1-14
10/2025
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Abstract
This paper presents the analyses of Combined Uranium Series and Electron Spin Resonance (US-ESR) dating on enamel fragments from five fossil teeth from the Hrdlička Pinnacle of the Australopithecus africanus Type Site at the Buxton-Norlim Limeworks, near Taung, South Africa. The mammal teeth were recovered from two types of deposits, the A. africanus bearing Pink Claystone (PCS) deposit that formed as layers within the Thabaseek tufa, and the secondary Yellow Red Sandstone (YRSS) deposit that filled cavities eroded through the tufa and PCS. The teeth were dated using enamel fragments following the US-ESR procedure. Two software programs, USESR (Shao et al., 2014) and DATA (Grün et al., 1988) were employed for the age estimation, however, the USESR software encountered numerous challenges, especially in modelling uranium uptake history. This is the first attempt to date a Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene tufa deposit using US-ESR dating. The complicated history, poor preservation of the samples, and the diagenetic process in the fossil teeth samples make the dating very challenging. Especially as all samples suffered from uranium leaching and three of the five samples had high uranium concentrations in the enamel. This appears to be related to the nature of the tufa environment where high uranium concentrations have also been identified in secondary flowstones formed in caves within the tufa deposits. The final age estimate for the PCS deposits, contemporary with the Taung skull, is a minimum of approximately 2.4 Ma, based on the EU model. Similarly, a minimum age of approximately 1.8 Ma is estimated for the YRSS deposits. The USESR ages (∼2.0 Ma for the PCS deposit and ∼1.3 Ma for the YRSS deposit) were less preferred due to being derived using an extrapolation function. Nevertheless, all results are associated with many uncertainties and complexities and it should be approached with great caution. Another possibility is that the deposit might be challenging to date using the USESR method. The difficulties of dating old sites like Taung in South Africa and in particular tufa environment have been highlighted.
Details
- Title
- The challenges of direct dating of fossil teeth from the Australopithecus africanus, Taung Child type site, South Africa
- Creators
- Wenjing Yu - La Trobe UniversityAndy I.R. Herries - La Trobe UniversityRenaud Joannes-Boyau - Southern Cross University
- Publication Details
- Quaternary geochronology, Vol.90, pp.1-14
- Publisher
- Elsevier B.V.
- Grant note
- Australian Research Council: ARC DP140100919, ARC DP 220100195 ARC LIEF grants: ARC LE200100022 La Trobe UniversityLa Trobe University Humanities and Social Science Internal Research Grant Scheme: 2019-3-HDR-0012
This research was supported through the Australian Research Council discovery grants (ARC DP140100919, ARC DP 220100195 to RJB) , ARC LIEF grants (ARC LE200100022 to RJB) , a higher degree research fee waiver and living scholarships from La Trobe University and the La Trobe University Humanities and Social Science Internal Research Grant Scheme 2019-3-HDR-0012 to WY. Southern Cross University generous contributed towards the installation of the ESR spectrometer. We thank Jason S. Massey for identifying the sample species. We thank Jean-Jacques Bahain and Eslem Ben Arous for their diligent and constructive reviews. We thank Fei Han for the DATA program calculations, Qingfeng Shao for advice on USESR pgrogram, and Chuanyi Wei for assisting with the dose response curves. Thanks to the South African Heritage Resources Agency for permits to undertake this research and the landowners of the Buxton-Norlim Limeworks.
- Identifiers
- 991013312224502368
- Copyright
- © 2025 The Authors.
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Science and Engineering; Science
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article