Do Fossil Elephants date the South African Australopithecines?

Abstract

WOLPOFF has recently proposed a date of 4.0 m.y. for the South African australopithecines¹. He used, however, two stratigraphic correlations which cannot be justified: (1) Cooke's original correlation² of Sterkfontein, Makapansgat and Taung (= Sterkfontein Faunal Span) with the Vaal Basal Older Gravels, and (2) Maglio's provisional correlation³ of fossil elephants from the “Vaal River gravels” with Kanapoi species “C”, radiometrically dated at 4.0 m.y. Wolpoff assumed (ref. 1, page 579) that Maglio's ambiguous term “Vaal River gravels” referred to “the beginning of the Vaal River sequence (oldest gravels)”, and hence assumed a correlative date of 4.0 m.y. for the Sterkfontein Faunal Span and associated australopithecines.