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Quaternary fossil fauna from the Luangwa Valley, Zambia

Bishop, L.C.; Barham, L.; Ditchfield, P.W.; Elton, S.; Harcourt-Smith, W.E.H.; Dawkins, P.

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Authors

L.C. Bishop

L. Barham

P.W. Ditchfield

W.E.H. Harcourt-Smith

P. Dawkins



Abstract

This paper describes a large collection of Quaternary fossil fauna from the Luangwa Rift Valley, Zambia. Stone Age artefacts have been recovered from stratified fluvial contexts, but no in situ fossil faunas have yet been recovered. We report on 500 fossil specimens collected from the surface of point bars exposed seasonally along the banks of the main Luangwa River channel. We used non-destructive X-ray fluorescence analysis of the fossils' chemical signatures to determine whether they derive from one or many primary contexts, and the relationship between chemical signature and state of preservation. Specimens are identified to taxon (genus) to reconstruct palaeoenvironments and biochronology. A relatively wide range of taxa is identified, including a fossil hominin talus, described here. None of the fossils is positively attributable to extinct species, except a femur of an extinct Theropithecus reported in 2003. Although no additional extinct taxa were identified, some of the remains were attributable to genera that are not currently found in this region. The results suggest that most of the assemblage derives from sediments which are Middle Pleistocene or later, and that past environments in the Luangwa Valley may have differed from the habitat availability found today.

Citation

Bishop, L., Barham, L., Ditchfield, P., Elton, S., Harcourt-Smith, W., & Dawkins, P. (2016). Quaternary fossil fauna from the Luangwa Valley, Zambia. Journal of Quaternary Science, 31(3), 178-190. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.2855

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Mar 20, 2016
Online Publication Date May 12, 2016
Publication Date Apr 1, 2016
Deposit Date Dec 14, 2015
Publicly Available Date Jun 8, 2016
Journal Journal of Quaternary Science
Print ISSN 0267-8179
Electronic ISSN 1099-1417
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 31
Issue 3
Pages 178-190
DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.2855

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Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Quaternary Science Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.






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