Biochronology of South African hominin-bearing sites: A reassessment using cercopithecid primates

This study provides updated age estimates of major South African hominin sites based on faunal correlations of cercopithecid monkeys. Importantly, we demonstrate that molar size is highly correlated with geological age in the Theropithecus oswaldi lineage, a common fossil cercopithecid, providing a chronometric tool not available previously. Contrary to some recent analyses, we find no evidence for hominin sites in South Africa significantly older than 2.8 Ma. Our results also suggest that some hominin sites are older than recently estimated (e.g., Swartkrans Member 3, Cooper's D). Where faunal estimates and still-developing chronometric methods conflict, further research is needed, but our current results have implications for the timing of human evolution in South Africa during the Plio-Pleistocene.