New hominin dental remains from the ∼2.04–1.95 Ma Drimolen Main Quarry, South Africa

Leece, Angeline; Martin, Jess; Baker, S; Wilson, Coen; Strait, DS; Schwartz, GT; Herries, Andrew

doi:10.26181/24446842.v1

New hominin dental remains from the ∼2.04–1.95 Ma Drimolen Main Quarry, South Africa

journal contribution

posted on 2023-10-26, 23:49 authored by Angeline LeeceAngeline Leece, Jess MartinJess Martin, S Baker, Coen WilsonCoen Wilson, DS Strait, GT Schwartz, Andrew HerriesAndrew Herries

Background: The Drimolen Palaeocave site is situated within the UNESCO Fossil Hominid Sites of South Africa World Heritage Area and has yielded numerous hominin fossils since its discovery in 1992. Most of these fossils are represented by isolated dental elements, which have been attributed to either of two distinct hominin genera, Paranthropus and Homo. Aim: This paper provides morphological descriptions for a further 19 specimens that have been recovered from the ∼2.04–1.95 Ma Drimolen Main Quarry (DMQ) deposits since 2008. This paper also discusses the two primary hypotheses used to explain Paranthropus robustus variation: sexual dimorphism, and micro-evolution within a lineage. Subjects and methods: These 19 fossils are represented by 47 dental elements and expand the sample of DMQ early Homo from 13 to 15, and the sample of Paranthropus robustus from 69 to 84. Results: The evidence presented in this paper was found to be inconsistent with the sexual dimorphism hypothesis. Conclusion: Some support was found for the micro-evolution hypothesis.

Funding

This research was funded and supported by Higher Degree Research fee waivers and living scholarships from La Trobe University to J.M.M. and A.B.L., an Internal Research Grant from La Trobe University to A.B.L., and an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant no. DP170100056 to A.I.R.H. and D.S.S.

History

Publication Date

2023-10-09

Journal

Annals of Human Biology

Volume

50

Issue

1

Pagination

(p. 407-427)

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

ISSN

0301-4460

Rights Statement

© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.