WEST LAFAYETTE, INDIANA—In response to a press release launched by Purdue College, Australopithecus fossils found deep in South Africa’s Sterkfontein Caves are greater than 1,000,000 years older than beforehand thought. A world crew of scientists from Purdue College, the College of the Witwatersrand, and the College of Toulouse Jean Jaurès dated the breccia the place the fossils had been discovered to be between 3.4 and three.7 million years in the past. The method included utilizing accelerator mass spectrometry to measure radioactive nuclides within the rocks that had been produced by publicity to cosmic rays, along with cautious mapping of earlier excavations and a research of how the cave’s sediments collected. Earlier makes an attempt so far the cave’s Australopithecus fossils concerned examinations of animal fossils discovered close to them and the age of the cave’s flowstones, mentioned Darryl Granger of Purdue College. However, he defined, the animal bones had been disturbed throughout earlier investigations, and younger flowstone will be deposited in outdated sediment, creating the potential for inaccurate dates. Learn the unique scholarly article about this analysis in Proceedings of the Nationwide Academy of Sciences of america of America. To examine an Australopithecus anamensis skull unearthed in Ethiopia, go to “Artifact.”
