Swartkrans is a fossil-bearing cave designated as a South African National Heritage Site, located about 32 km (20 mi) from Johannesburg.[1] It is located in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site and is notable for being extremely rich in archaeological material, particularly hominin remains.[2] Fossils discovered in the limestone of Swartkrans include Homo ergaster (a variety of Homo erectus), Paranthropus and Homo habilis. The oldest deposits present at the site are believed to be between 1.9 and 2.1 million years old.[3]
Noted paleontologist Robert Broom was a frequent digger. He was followed by C. K. 'Bob' Brain, whose excavations at the site inspired his book The Hunters or the Hunted? in which he demonstrated that instead of being bloodthirsty killer apes, the hominin fossils found at the site were themselves victims of predation by big cats.[4] Originally, it was believed that Dinofelis was responsible for such killings, though recent evidence suggests that hominids were likely the victims of Megantereon or leopards based on carbon isotope ratios taken from each predator.[5]
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found at Swartkrans, up to 1.5 million years ago. In addition, some of the earliest evidence of modified bone tools has also been found at Swartkrans and Sterkfontein...
Later in 1948, Robert Broom identified the first hominid remains from Swartkrans cave. In 1954, C. K. Brain began working at sites in the Cradle, including...
around the same area, now known as the Cradle of Humankind. In 1948, at Swartkrans Cave, in about the same vicinity as Kromdraai, Broom and South African...
one of the richest sites for hominin fossils in the world, as well as Swartkrans, Gondolin Cave, Kromdraai, Cooper's Cave and Malapa. Raymond Dart identified...
Puma. It was described based on fossils from the Early Pleistocene-aged Swartkrans site in South Africa. Puma incurva had previously been described in 1956...
1948), and a revision of Puma incurva (Ewer, 1956), the Early Pleistocene Swartkrans "leopard" (Carnivora, Felidae)". Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments...
of bone tools by hominins also producing Oldowan tools is known from Swartkrans, where a bone shaft with a polished point was discovered in Member (layer)...
discovered at the nearby Swartkrans Cave in 1948. P. robustus was only definitively identified at Kromdraai and Swartkrans until around the turn of the...
Plio-Pleistocene in South Africa, where fossils have been found in the Swartkrans dated to as recently as 1.5 million years ago. Proteles amplidentus was...
River valley, about 800 meters (0.50 miles; 2,600 feet) southwest of Swartkrans, part of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa....
species have been found at multiple sites in the country, including the Swartkrans and Kromdraai. In comparison to the extant rock hyrax, P. transvaalensis...
largest scale." (1889, pp. 155–156). In 1949, the species was reported in Swartkrans Cave, South Africa, by South African paleoanthropologists Robert Broom...
classification uncertainty. After the discovery of a robust skull in Swartkrans in 1948 (SK48), the name Meganthropus africanus was briefly applied. However...
(2016). "Earliest hominin cancer: 1.7-million-year-old osteosarcoma from Swartkrans Cave, South Africa". South African Journal of Science. 112 (7/8): 5. doi:10...
in South Africa, all of early Pleistocene age, including Skurweberg, Swartkrans (Member 1), and Sterkfontein (Member 4 or 5, but probably member 4). Dinopithecus...
Swartkrans was known as a place with bulk of australopithecine fossils and this individual would be the only evidence of Homo found in Swartkrans. List...
Cape Floral Region Protected Areas Fossil Hominid Sites of Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai, and Environs iSimangaliso Wetland Park Mapungubwe Cultural...
being a hunter of hominids exists as carbon isotope ratios in teeth at Swartkrans. When compared with its fellow machairodont, Dinofelis, which shared the...
scarce in the Cradle of Humankind, occurring only in a few pockets of the Swartkrans. On the basis of Valerius Geist's theories about the relation of social...
ISBN 978-1-4214-0093-8. Vrba, E.S. (1973). "Two species of Antidorcas (Sundevall) at Swartkrans (Mammalia: Bovidae)". Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 28 (15): 287–351...
water. Makapania broomi has been found at Sterkfontein Members 4 and 5, Swartkrans Members 1-3, Gladysvale, Motsetse and possibly Coopers. It has been recovered...
Evidence shows controlled fire was used up to 1.5 million years ago at Swartkrans, South Africa. It is unknown which hominid species first used fire, as...
exhibited in the earlier South African hominin Paranthropus robustus at Swartkrans (30.6%) or Sterkfontein (12.1%). Nonetheless, Neanderthals suffered even...
1948), and a revision of Puma incurva (Ewer, 1956), the Early Pleistocene Swartkrans "leopard" (Carnivora, Felidae)". Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments...
Paranthropus robustus individual, SK 54, had been killed by a leopard at Swartkrans in Gauteng, South Africa approximately 1.8 million years ago. The SK 54...
L. R. (2004). Field Guide to the Cradle of Humankind : Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai & Environs World Heritage Site (2nd ed.). Cape Town: Struik...
closely resemble those of three unidentified Homo specimens from the local Swartkrans and East African Koobi Fora Caves, and are similar in size (but not shape)...
200–400 °C (400–750 °F). Evidence of possible human control of fire, found at Swartkrans, South Africa, includes burned bones, including ones with hominin-inflicted...
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