| Haasgat Fossil Site, Cradle of Humankind | |
|---|---|
  Location in Gauteng | |
| Location | Gauteng, South Africa |
| Nearest city | Broederstroom, South Africa |
| Coordinates | 25°51′31″S27°50′9″E / 25.85861°S 27.83583°E /-25.85861; 27.83583 |
| Established | Formally discovered in 1987 |
| Governing body | Cradle of Humankind Management Authority and private landowner |
Haasgat is a fossil-bearing cave system in theUNESCO-designatedCradle of Humankind in theGauteng province inSouth Africa. It is located about 20 kilometres (12 mi) northeast of thehominin-bearing sites ofSterkfontein andSwartkrans and 60 kilometres (37 mi) north-northwest ofJohannesburg. Haasgat is on private land and is not accessible by the public.
The cave system formed on the western slope of a narrow, north-south valley excised by a southeastern tributary of the Witwatersrandspruit River. As is the case with many of the dolomitic paleocaves in the region, the system was extensively mined for lime during the early 20th century. Although this mining obliterated the original cave entrance and parts of the system, the miners largely followed the original contours of the system. As a result, Haasgat is somewhat unusual in maintaining both the original roof and parietal contours, as well as remnant fossiliferous bands of calcified sediments throughout the ~100m long tunnel that comprises the modern cave.[1][2][3]
While Haasgat was long known to residents of the Kalkheuvel West region (who named the cave Haasgat [Afrikaans: hare hole] after a resident red rock hare), the system was first mapped during a survey of regional caves by Martini and Keyser in 1987.[4][1] The extensiveex situ calificied sediment miner's dumps at Haasgat were sampled by Andre Keyser in the late 1980s, yielding a fossil assemblage that was partially described in a series of publications.[4][1][5][6] The site was abandoned after this single phase of sampling and data from the site has rarely been incorporated into studies of South African Plio-Pleistocene fossil record. Since 2010, an international interdisciplinary team has initiated a new phase ofex situandin situ excavation, geological sampling, and faunal analysis.[7][citation not found][2][3]} Currently, this research program integrates researchers from theDitsong National Museum of Natural History (South Africa; Stephany Potze, Lazarus Kgasi),Monash University (Australia; Justin W. Adams),La Trobe University (Australia; Andy I.R. Herries),Grand Valley State University (USA; Anthony D.T. Kegley),University of Melbourne (Australia; Robyn Pickering), and the School of Anatomical Sciences at theUniversity of the Witwatersrand (South Africa; Jason Hemingway).
Original interpretations of the formation of the Haasgat cave system (speleogenesis) emphasised development along a typical low-topographic relief pattern, where progressive erosion and deepening of the valley into the surface dolomites drained the phreatic cave, allowing for internal collapse and expansion of the system.[1] Simultaneously, Keyser and Martini also suggested that the elevation of the system (near 1500m) and erosional deroofing prior to mining might indicate that the fossil deposits at Haasgat might have formed as early as the terminal Pliocene.[1] Subsequent biostratigraphic interpretations of the fauna processed from theex situdumpsites produced two different proposed age ranges. An evaluation of the extinct baboon (Papioangusticeps) sample, a species currently only known across African Pleistocene deposits in the Kromdraai A assemblage, were taken to suggest that the Haasgat fossils were roughly contemporaneous (~1.9-1.8 million years ago).[5][8][9] In contrast, a description of the non-primate faunas from theex situdumpsite emphasised the largely modern ungulate sample and suggested a more recent depositional age of maximally 1.5 – 0.5 million years ago.[6] The recent analysis byAdams 2013 of all theex-situ fauna from the cave suggests an age later than the first occurrence ofEquus in Africa at ~2.3 Ma and an age prior to ~1.8 Ma[3] also undertook a palaeomagnetic analysis of the cave deposits, indicating that the mainin-situ fossil beds were older than the end of the Olduvai SubChron at 1.95 Ma and younger than the Gauss-Matuyama Boundary at 2.58 Ma. This suggests an age between 2.3 and 1.95 Ma for the majority of fossils from the site.
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