Probable human hair found in a fossil hyaena coprolite from Gladysvale cave,South Africa |
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| Authors: | Lucinda Backwell Robyn Pickering Don Brothwell Lee Berger Michael Witcomb David Martill Kirsty Penkman Andrew Wilson |
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| Affiliation: | 1. BPI Palaeontology, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, WITS 2050, South Africa;2. Institute for Geological Sciences, University of Bern, CH 3012, Switzerland;3. Department of Archaeology, University of York, YO1 7EP, UK;4. Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa;5. Microscopy and Microanalysis Unit, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa;6. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO1 3QL, UK;g BioArCh, Department of Chemistry, University of York, Heslington YO10 5DD, UK;h Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP, UK |
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| Abstract: | 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 preserved in calcified cave sediment dated between 195,000 and 257,000 years ago. This find supports the hypothesis that hyaenas accumulated some of the early hominin remains found in cave sites, and provides a new source of information on Pleistocene mammals in the Sterkfontein Valley. |
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| Keywords: | Fossil hair Hyaena coprolites Gladysvale cave South Africa |
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