Dating the Homo erectus bearing travertine from Kocabas (Denizli, Turkey) at at least 1.1 Ma

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Tarih

2014

Dergi Başlığı

Dergi ISSN

Cilt Başlığı

Yayıncı

Elsevier Science Bv

Erişim Hakkı

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Özet

Since its discovery within a travertine quarry, the fragmentary cranium of the only known Turkish Homo erectus, the Kocabas hominid, has led to conflicting biochronological estimations. First estimated to be similar to 500 lea old, the partial skull presents a combination of archaic and evolved features that puts it as an intermediate specimen between the Drnanisi fossils (Homo georgicus) and the Chinese Zhoukoudian skulls (Homo erectus) respectively dated to 1.8 to similar to 0.8 Ma. Here we present a multidisciplinary study combining sedimentological, paleontological and paleoanthropological observations together with cosmogenic nuclide concentration and paleomagnetic measurements to provide an absolute chronological framework for the Upper fossiliferous Travertine unit where the Kocabas hominid and fauna were discovered. The Al-26/(10) Be burial ages determined on pebbles from conglomeratic levels framing the Upper fossiliferous Travertine unit, which exhibits an inverse polarity, constrains its deposition to before the Cobb Mountain sub-chron, that is between 1.22 and similar to 1.5 Ma. The alternative match of the normal polarity recorded above the travertine with the Jaramillo subchron (lower limit 1.07 Ma) may also be marginally compatible with cosmogenic nuclides interpretation, thus the proposed minimum age of 1.1 Ma for the end of massive travertine deposition. The actual age of the fossils is likely to be in the 1.1-1.3 Ma range. This absolute date is in close agreement with the paleoanthropological conclusions based on morphometric comparisons implying that Kocabas hominid belongs to the Homo erectus s.l. group that includes Chinese and African fossils, and is different from Middle and Upper Pleistocene specimens. Furthermore, this date is confirmed by the large mammal assemblage, typical of the late Villafranchian. Because it attests to the antiquity of human occupation of the Anatolian Peninsula and one of the waves of settlements out of Africa, this work challenges the current knowledge of the Homo erectus dispersal over Eurasia. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).

Açıklama

Anahtar Kelimeler

Cosmogenic nuclide, Burial dating, Paleomagnetism, Homo erectus, Villafranchian

Kaynak

Earth and Planetary Science Letters

WoS Q Değeri

Q1

Scopus Q Değeri

Cilt

390

Sayı

Künye