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Age of death - Malapa Hominin 1

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CaseHeader

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HeritageAuthority(s): 

Case Type: 

ProposalDescription: 

The age of death of the Malapa Hominin 1 individual from the Malapa locality, Crandle of Humankind, is unknown. High resolution CT scans have been applied in order to answer this question but without success. There is now an unexpected opportunity to carry out synchrotron studies on mandibular fragments from the skeleton at the facility in Grenoble, France. This skeleton is currently still on display at the Perot Museum in Dallas, Texas, USA. However, Prof Lee Berger has returned three mandibular fragments to South Africa with, with permission, with the view of obtaining a permit to take the to France for synchrotron scanning. In addition, there is another rock from Malapa, and a plaster jacket from Rising Star that are unsuitable for CT scanning, and subjecting them to synchrotron, would tell us is they are worth pursuing as they apear to contain valuable material. This would be a test case for larger blocks in future.

Expanded_Motivation: 

These specimens will be scanned between March 15th and August 2020. The purpose of scanning the Malapa material is to establish the age of death of the MH-1 individual. Earlier attempts at establishing the age of death failed as we were missing these critical elements. Synchrotron is the only non-invasive method of establishing the age of death. The block with possible skin is being scanned in order to establish with certainty, and non-invasively, whether the impressions are indeed skin. Previous studies have shown a high probability that the material is skin, but were unable to prove this with certainty. Attempts to scan the material with our micro-CT scanner at Wits did not give good results. With the phase contrast capabilities of the synchrotron, we have high hopes of testing the hypothesis that this impression is skin. The Rising Star plaster jacketed material does not appear to contain any fossil bone. The block originates from a position adjacent to the Hill Antechamber blocks that contain the parts of at least three individuals. These two other blocks will be travelling to the synchrotron in 2021 when the new beamline comes online as they are too large to be handled by the present carriage. We wish to take this smaller block to set up parameters for net years experiments on similar material in order to minimize wasted time during setup when the very large block goes in front of the beam. Prof Lee Berger would like to take these specimens to Grenoble on the 14th of March and I will hand carry them himself.

ApplicationDate: 

Tuesday, March 3, 2020 - 12:42

CaseID: 

14963

OtherReferences: 

ReferenceList: 

Images
MH1 Mandible elements
AdditionalDocuments
  1. Image icon UW88-140509-B040 Rock with MH1 cranial elements
  2. PDF icon email_request_for_permit_report_March2020.pdf

Public Comments

Displaying 1 - 1 of 1

Lee R. Berger
2 years 2 months ago
Evolutionary Studies Institute
,
University of the Witwatersrand

Due to the inability to travel due to Covid restrictions as well as the lockdown of the key research facility the ESRF in Grenoble France, it was requested in 2021 to extend this permit to December 2022 in order to conduct this important experiment. All criteria of the permit as issued in 2020 and extended would be adhered to following the original permit request. This extension has been... more

 

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