Robyn Pickering

University of Cape Town | UCT · Department of Geological Sciences

The evolutionary relationships among extinct African hominin taxa are highly debated and largely unresolved, due in part to a lack of molecular data. Even within taxa, it is not always clear, based on morphology alone, whether ranges of variation are due to sexual dimorphism versus potentially undescribed taxonomic diversity. For Paranthropus robus...

Waypoint 160 is a paleocave at Bolt's Farm in the 'Cradle of Humankind,' South Africa. It is known for the novel murid taxa Eurotomys bolti, argued to be morphologically intermediate between Eurotomys pelomyoides from Langebaanweg (∼5.1 Ma) and the earliest Otomyinae from Makapansgat Limeworks (∼3.0-2.6 Ma). Based on the presence of this specimen,...

The archaeological record, particularly of shellfish, from the Klasies River main site (KRM) is important in understanding the fluctuating nature of coastal occupational patterns and changing coastal ecologies. In this paper, we provide new uranium–thorium (U-Th) dates for one of the earlier phases of coastal exploitation at KRM, and the microstrat...

Detailed, well-dated palaeoclimate and archaeological records are critical for understanding the impact of environmental change on human evolution. Ga-Mohana Hill, in the southern Kalahari, South Africa, preserves a Pleistocene archaeological sequence. Relict tufas at the site are evidence of past flowing streams, waterfalls, and shallow pools. Her...

Humans evolved in the dynamic landscapes of Africa under conditions of pronounced climatic, geological and environmental change during the past 7 million years. This book brings together detailed records of the paleontological and archaeological sites in Africa that provide the basic evidence for understanding the environments in which we evolved....

Over two decades of technical and application-based advances to the speleothem U-Pb chronometer have cemented this terrestrial archive at the forefront of landscape reconstruction, palaeoclimatology, and palaeoanthropology. The ability to access speleothem palaeoclimate records beyond the 650 ka limit of the U-Th system has opened many avenues to s...

Oxalate-rich mineral accretions, often found in rock shelters around the world, offer important opportunities for radiocarbon dating of associated rock art. Here, sample characterization and chemical pretreatment techniques are used to characterize the accretions, prescreen for evidence of open-system behavior, and address potential contamination....

Caves in South Africa preserve a rich record of early hominin and early modern human development and have been the subject of much research. UPb dating of speleothems, particularly flowstones, has provided a much-needed chronology for cave sites in the Cradle of Humankind, the coastal cliff caves at Pinnacle Point and at the archaeological site of...

The archaeological record of Africa provides the earliest evidence for the emergence of the complex symbolic and technological behaviours that characterize Homo sapiens1,2,3,4,5,6,7. The coastal setting of many archaeological sites of the Late Pleistocene epoch, and the abundant shellfish remains recovered from them, has led to a dominant narrative...

Homo sapiens exhibit extreme behavioural plasticity, mediated by culture and technology, that permits us to adapt rapidly to new environments and situations. Understanding the role that past climate change played in selecting for Homo sapiens’ adaptability is a key question in human evolution research. The arid and semi-arid Kalahari Basin in south...

South Africa has an extraordinary record of human evolution spanning from our early hominin ancestors in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site, through to more recent evidence for the emergence of modern humans. Human evolution research in South Africa has received international attention for nearly a hundred years and has been vast and broad...

Despite advances in our understanding of the geographic and temporal scope of the Paleolithic record, we know remarkably little about the evolutionary and ecological consequences of changes in human behavior. Recent inquiries suggest that human evolution reflects a long history of interconnections between the behavior of humans and their surroundin...

The region ∼40 km north-west of Johannesburg, South Africa, known locally as the Cradle of Humankind, is of global significance as the caves preserve Plio-Pleistocene faunal and early hominin fossils. Despite a long history of research, there is still a need to contextualise and date the remarkable collection of fossils. An important but understudi...

The Pleistocene ungulate communities from the western coastal plains of South Africa's Cape Floristic Region (CFR) are diverse and dominated by grazers, in contrast to the region's Holocene and historical faunas, which are relatively species-poor and dominated by small-bodied browsers and mixed feeders. An expansion of grassy habitats is clearly im...

Atmospheric circulation is a fundamental component of Earth's climate system, transporting energy poleward to partially offset the latitudinal imbalance in insolation. Changes in the latitudinal distribution of insolation thus force variations in atmospheric circulation, in turn altering regional hydroclimates. Here we demonstrate that regional hyd...

Atmospheric circulation is a fundamental component of Earth's climate system, transporting energy poleward to partially offset the latitudinal imbalance in insolation. Changes in the latitudinal distribution of insolation thus force variations in atmospheric circulation, in turn altering regional hydroclimates. Here we demonstrate that regional hyd...

Over the last few decades, investigations of the southern African Late Pleistocene archeological record have transformed our understanding of Homo sapiens origins and evolution. However, the intensity of research on coastal and near-coastal records has surpassed that in the deep interior. One reason for the geographic bias is the rarity of well-pre...

We analysed the isotopic compositions of bioavailable strontium (Sr) and lead (Pb) in 47 samples of animals and plants derived from the various geological substrates of southwestern South Africa, to explore the utility of these isotope systems as dietary tracers. Measurements were made using high-resolution multi-collector inductively-coupled-plasm...

Sterkfontein Caves is the single richest early hominin site in the world, with deposits yielding two potential species of Australopithecus, Paranthropus robustus, and early Homo , as well as an extensive faunal collection and stone tools. Recent advances in uranium-lead (U-Pb) dating of speleothems and palaeomagnetic analysis at Sterkfontein provid...

The recent publication by Chan et al (2019) entitled “Human origins in a southern African palaeo-wetland and first migrations” fails to meet scientific standards for publication in two ways. First, it neglects its scientific duty to discuss the entire body of scientific evidence around human origins, which leads to unsupportable claims. Second, it...

Although quantitative isotope data from speleothems has been used to evaluate isotope-enabled model simulations, currently no consensus exists regarding the most appropriate methodology through which to achieve this. A number of modelling groups will be running isotope-enabled palaeoclimate simulations in the framework of the Coupled Model Intercom...

Bolt’s Farm is a series of fossil bearing active caves and palaeokarst remnants in the Cradle of Humankind, Gauteng, which has been explored for palaeontological remains since the 1940s. An early Pliocene age of 5-4 Ma was suggested for one deposit at Bolt’s Farm, Waypoint 160, based on the discovery of a new species of rodent Euryotomys bolti (Sen...

Silcrete was often used to make stone tools and the ubiquity of this material in the archaeological record has sparked considerable interest in developing techniques that can be used to trace its geographic origin. However, the highly variable physical and chemical properties of silcrete means that artefacts made from this raw material have proved...

Africa spans the hemispheres from temperate region to temperate region and has a long history of hominin evolution. Although the number of Quaternary palaeoclimatic records from the continent is increasing, much of the history of spatial and temporal climatic variability is still debated. Speleothems, as archives of terrestrial hydroclimate variabi...

Bolt’s Farm is a Plio-Pleistocene fossil site located within the southwestern corner of the UNESCO Hominid Fossil Sites of South Africa World Heritage Site. The site is a complex of active caves and more than 20 palaeokarst deposits or pits, many of which were exposed through the action of lime mining in the early 20th century. The pits represent h...

The Cradle of Humankind (Cradle) in South Africa preserves a rich collection of fossil hominins representing Australopithecus, Paranthropus and Homo1. The ages of these fossils are contentious2–4 and have compromised the degree to which the South African hominin record can be used to test hypotheses of human evolution. However, uranium–lead (U–Pb)...

In this paper the new excavations at Klasies River main site are introduced and the first results presented and linked with previous work, establishing a baseline for future reporting. Data from the earliest phase of the SAS member, comprising the basal SASU and SASL sub-members from caves 1 and 1A are discussed. A new U-Th date of 126.0 ± 1.5 ka o...

Africa spans the hemispheres from temperate region to temperate region, has a long history of hominin evolution and yet has a relatively poorly understood Quaternary climate history. Speleothems, as archives of terrestrial hydroclimate variability, can help reveal this history, and here we review the progress made to date, with a focus on the first...

Stable isotope records from speleothems provide information on past climate changes, most particularly information that can be used to reconstruct past changes in precipitation and atmospheric circulation. These records are increasingly being used to provide “out-of-sample” evaluations of isotope-enabled climate models. SISAL (Speleothem Isotope Sy...

Stable isotope records from speleothems provide information on past climate changes, most particularly information that can be used to reconstruct past changes in precipitation and atmospheric circulation. These records are increasingly being used to provide “out-of-sample” evaluations of isotope-enabled climate models. SISAL (Speleothem Isotope Sy...

South Africa contains a wealth of palaeokarst deposits that have yielded hominin fossils and Early Stone Age archaeology. Despite the complex nature of deposition within many of these caves there has been a dearth of detailed geoarchaeological studies undertaken on these sites. Many sites in South Africa have been interpreted using an overly simpli...

Dating is basic for archaeological and paleontological investigations and results of different dating methods used in Azokh caves are described in this chapter. Fossils from Azokh were not dated by any method previously. Lithic technology and taxonomy suggested a middle Pleistocene age for Unit V (from where Acheulian industries and a human mandibl...

Detailed analysis of both lithogenic and biogenic components from the Eastern Equatorial Pacific (EEP) ODP Site 1240 reveals the occurrence of major changes in the position/intensity of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) during the early Pleistocene. Both upwelling and wind proxies suggest coupled changes in the tropical ocean-atmosphere sys...

Wonderwerk Cave, in the Northern Cape, South Africa, contains a long and much studied sequence of archaeological sediments and stone tool industries and is particularly known for its Earlier Stone Age (ESA) deposits. The paucity of well-dated ESA sites in South Africa, as well as question of the Fauresmith, seen as a transitional industry between t...

Endemic New World monkeys are an important element of the extinct mammal faunas of the Caribbean's Greater Antilles. Here we report the first geochronometric evidence that the primate Antillothrix bernensis existed in the Dominican Republic during the Pleistocene, based on the uranium-series age of carbonate speleothem that encased a tibia when it...

Deposits in sea caves found along the southern coastline of South Africa have produced a rich and detailed archaeological record of early modern humans. There is, however, little evidence for coastal cave deposits and human occupation older than MIS5e (w120 ka). Based on the correlation of four different chronological methods we present evidence fo...

This paper presents a review of, and new data concerning, the age of Australopithecus in southern Africa. Current dating suggests that Makapansgat Limeworks is the oldest hominin deposit in southern Africa, with Australopithecus africanus dating to between 3.0 and 2.6 Ma. The Taung Child A. africanus fossil from Taung is most likely penecontemporar...

A south-east Australian speleothem stable isotope record displaying an apparent cooling synchronous with the northern hemisphere Younger Dryas climate event (12.9–11.7 ka) has significantly influenced scientific thinking on the climatic response of the southern hemisphere following the Last Glacial Maximum. This is one of very few records displayin...

The current understanding of landscape scale variation in mid-Pleistocene hominin behavior is limited. Most of our understanding derives from a few localities in eastern Africa. Consequently, we know very little about hominin landscape use outside this region, despite the fact that mid-Pleistocene hominins occupied other climatic zones including te...

Speleothem proxy records, coupled with U–Th chronologies, are widely used in studies of palaeoclimate, landscape and faunal evolution. The prospect of extending such studies beyond ∼500 ka has fuelled considerable interest in the U–Pb dating method. While theoretical mechanisms for the transport and incorporation of both U and Pb in speleothem calc...

This review summarises current research aimed at extending the chronology and thus scientific utility of speleothems beyond the 500 ka limit previously imposed by conventional UTh dating methods. The UPb decay scheme is familiar to all geoscientists but its application to speleothems is a relatively recent development, and one set to revolutionise...

Despite intense interest in the Earth's climate since the last glacial termination, there remain large uncertainties regarding the exact causes, timing and spatial extent of the key events of this period. Many of the millennial scale climatic fluctuations characterising the last deglaciation are well established in records from the Northern Hemisph...

The value of speleothems as archives of palaeoclimate information is greatly enhanced by their inherent suitability to U-series dating. U-Pb dating goes beyond the 500 000 year cut off of U-Th and with the recent, major advances in this technique the possibilities are both numerous and exciting. While much U-series work has focused on dating stalag...

Newly exposed cave sediments at the Malapa site include a flowstone layer capping the sedimentary unit containing the Australopithecus sediba fossils. Uranium-lead dating of the flowstone, combined with paleomagnetic and stratigraphic analysis of the flowstone and underlying sediments, provides a tightly constrained date of 1.977 ± 0.002 million ye...

The Cradle of Humankind cave sites in South Africa preserve fossil evidence of four early hominin taxa: Australopithecus africanus, Australopithecus sediba, Paranthropus robustus and early Homo. In order to integrate this record into a pan-African scenario of human evolutionary history it is critical to have reliable dates and temporal ranges for t...

Speleothems are found in association with hominin fossil-bearing cave deposits in South Africa and can be used to provide valuable chronological constraints. Such material is generally too old for U–Th dating and, although U–Pb geochronology presents a suitable alternative, bulk U concentrations are typically too low (<0.05 μg/g) to provide useful...

Sterkfontein Caves is the single richest early hominin site in the world with deposits yielding one or more species of Australopithecus and possible early Homo, as well as an extensive faunal collection. The inability to date the southern African cave sites accurately or precisely has hindered attempts to integrate the hominin fossil evidence into...

We use stable isotopes of carbon and oxygen to investigate the potential palaeoclimate records from the caves near Johannesburg in South Africa. The sediments in these caves contain early human (hominin) fossils, as well as speleothem material, providing an ideal opportunity to investigate the palaeo-enviroments of our earliest ancestors. These sit...

Speleothems are found in association with early human (hominin) fossil-bearing cave deposits in South Africa and can be used to provide valuable chronological constraints. Such material is generally too old for U-Th dating and, although U-Pb geochronology presents a suitable alternative, bulk U concentrations are typically too low (< 0.05 μg/g) to...

From Australopithecus to Homo Our genus Homo is thought to have evolved a little more than 2 million years ago from the earlier hominid Australopithecus . But there are few fossils that provide detailed information on this transition. Berger et al. (p. 195 ; see the cover) now describe two partial skeletons, including most of the skull, pelvis, and...

We report on new research at Swartkrans Cave, South Africa, that provides evidence of two previously unrealized artifact- and fossil-bearing deposits. These deposits underlie a speleothem dated by the uranium-thorium disequilibrium technique to 110,000 ± 1,980 years old, the first tightly constrained, geochronological date available for the site. R...

1] A 50 kyr-long exceptionally well-dated and highly resolved stalagmite oxygen (d 18 O) and carbon (d 13 C) isotope record from Sofular Cave in northwestern Turkey helps to further improve the dating of Greenland Interstadials (GI) 1, and 3 – 12. Timing of most GI in the Sofular record is consistent within ±10 to 300 years with the ''iconic'' Hulu...

An in situ fossil latrine is reported from Gladysvale Cave, South Africa. The latrine area is c. 1.5 m in observable horizontal length and varies in height with a maximum of 20 cm, indicating that deposition may have occurred over a considerable period of time. The size of individual coprolites in the latrine varies, with larger specimens > 30 mm i...

Until now, the oldest known human hair was from a 9000-year-old South American mummy. Here we report fossil hairs of probable human origin that exceed that age by about 200,000 years. The hairs have been discovered in a brown hyaena (Parahyaena brunnea) coprolite from Gladysvale cave in South Africa. The coprolite is part of a hyaena latrine preser...

Australopithecus robustus is one of the best represented hominin taxa in Africa, with hundreds of specimens recovered from six fossil localities in the Bloubank Valley area of Gauteng Province, South Africa. However, precise geochronological ages are presently lacking for these fossil cave infills. In this paper, we provide a detailed geological ba...

A 300 ky-long high resolution stalagmite record from Northern Turkey: Millennial-scale events and Black Sea flooding

Precise Timing of Dansgaard-Oeschger events 1-13 in stalagmites from Sofular Cave, Northern Turkey

The modern climate in Turkey and the eastern Mediterranean is strongly affected by two major climate systems; the North Atlantic/Siberian pressure system in winter and the Indian monsoon in summer. Turkey is ideally situated to study how and to what extent both systems were dynamically linked during the Holocene and late Pleistocene periods. Our cu...

An overview of methods to numerically date continental Quaternary deposits is provided including radiocarbon, Uranium series, cosmogenic nuclides, luminescence and electron spin resonance. Physical background and methodology are briefly described and potential problems as well as recent developments in the field are highlighted.

The Gemmi fault is a prominent NW–SE striking lineament that crosses the Gemmi Pass in the central Swiss Alps. A multidisciplinary investigation of this structure that included geological mapping, joint profiling, cathodoluminescence and scanning electron microscopy, stable isotope measurements, luminescence- and U-TH-dating, 3D ground penetrating...

Gladysvale Cave is one of the few Plio-Pleistocene hominin-bearing cave sites in South Africa that contains a well-stratified cave fill with clastic sediments interspersed with flowstones. The clastic sediments can be divided into units based on the presence of intercalated flowstones, forming flowstone bounded units (FBU). Ten MC-ICP-MS uranium-se...

WE DESCRIBE A SINGLE HANDAXE FROM fossiliferous breccias at Gladysvale Cave, South Africa. The artefact is the only known tool so far discovered during the controlled excavations conducted at this site over the last decade, and was recovered from decalcified sediments near the stratigraphic interface of two breccia units, making it difficult to ass...