Morphometric comparison of semicircular canals of Parapapio broomi and P. jonesi from Sterkfontein, South Africa
- Authors: Thackeray, J. Francis , Dumoncel, Jean , Gommery, Dominique , Lazarus Kgasi , Tawane, Gaokgatlhe M. , De Bee, Frikkie C. , Hoffman, Jakobus W. , Bam, Lunga C.
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Parapapio , Baboon , Holotype
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/401216 , uj:33519 , Citation: Thackeray J.F, Dumoncel J, Gommery D, Kgasi L, Tawane G.M, De Beer F.C. et al. Morphometric comparison of semicircular canals of Parapapio broomi and P. jonesi from Sterkfontein, South Africa. S Afr J Sci. 2019;115(1/2), Art. #a0303, 3 pages. https://doi.org/10.17159/ sajs.2019/a0303
- Description: Abstract: As an anatomist working on modern baboons at the University of the Witwatersrand, Trevor Jones1 described a partial cranium of a Plio-Pleistocene baboon (Sts 564) from the Sterkfontein Caves in the Cradle of Humankind. He named it Parapapio broomi, a new genus and species in honour of Dr Robert Broom who was based at the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria from 1934 until his death in 1951 (the museum is now referred to as the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History). Jones was a student of Professor Raymond Dart who had encouraged Broom to work at Sterkfontein after this site had yielded fossil baboons similar to those that had been found at Taung2 – the site from which the holotype specimen of Australopithecus africanus was discovered in 19243. It is now recognised that Parapapio and hominins are often found together in pene-contemporaneous Plio- Pleistocene deposits in Africa. The first hominin to be found at Sterkfontein (TM 1511, A. africanus) was discovered in 1936, soon after the initial discovery of fossil baboons at the site by Trevor Jones and two of Dart’s other students from the University of the Witwatersrand.
- Full Text:
Life on a Mesoarchean marine shelf – insights from the world’s oldest known granular iron formation
- Authors: Smith, Albertus J. B. , Beukes, Nicolas J. , Gutzmer, Jens , Johnson, Clark M. , Czaja, Andrew D. , Nhleko, Noah , De Beer, Frikkie , Hoffman, Jakobus W. , Awramik, Stanley M.
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/464407 , uj:41488 , Citation: Smith, A.J.B. et al. 2020. Life on a Mesoarchean marine shelf – insights from the world’s oldest known granular iron formation. , DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66805-0
- Description: Abstract: The Nconga Formation of the Mesoarchean (~2.96–2.84 Ga) Mozaan Group of the Pongola Supergroup of southern Africa contains the world’s oldest known granular iron formation. Three dimensional reconstructions of the granules using micro-focus X-ray computed tomography reveal that these granules are microstromatolites coated by magnetite and calcite, and can therefore be classified as oncoids. The reconstructions also show damage to the granule coatings caused by sedimentary transport during formation of the granules and eventual deposition as density currents. The detailed, three dimensional morphology of the granules in conjunction with previously published geochemical and isotope data indicate a biogenic origin for iron precipitation around chert granules on the shallow shelf of one of the oldest supracratonic environments on Earth almost three billion years ago. It broadens our understanding of biologically-mediated iron precipitation during the Archean by illustrating that it took place on the shallow marine shelf coevally with deeper water, below-wave base iron precipitation in micritic iron formations.
- Full Text:
Life on a Mesoarchean marine shelf – insights from the world’s oldest known granular iron formation
- Authors: Smith, Albertus J. B. , Beukes, Nicolas J. , Gutzmer, Jens , Johnson, Clark M. , Czaja, Andrew D. , Nhleko, Noah , De Beer, Frikkie , Hoffman, Jakobus W. , Awramik, Stanley M.
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/464408 , uj:41489 , Citation: Smith, A.J.B. et al. 2020. Life on a Mesoarchean marine shelf – insights from the world’s oldest known granular iron formation. , DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66805-0
- Description: Abstract: The Nconga Formation of the Mesoarchean (~2.96–2.84 Ga) Mozaan Group of the Pongola Supergroup of southern Africa contains the world’s oldest known granular iron formation. Three dimensional reconstructions of the granules using micro-focus X-ray computed tomography reveal that these granules are microstromatolites coated by magnetite and calcite, and can therefore be classified as oncoids. The reconstructions also show damage to the granule coatings caused by sedimentary transport during formation of the granules and eventual deposition as density currents. The detailed, three dimensional morphology of the granules in conjunction with previously published geochemical and isotope data indicate a biogenic origin for iron precipitation around chert granules on the shallow shelf of one of the oldest supracratonic environments on Earth almost three billion years ago. It broadens our understanding of biologically-mediated iron precipitation during the Archean by illustrating that it took place on the shallow marine shelf coevally with deeper water, below-wave base iron precipitation in micritic iron formations.
- Full Text: