Everything about Coopers Cave South Africa totally explained
Geographical Location
Cooper's Cave is a series of fossil-bearing breccia filled cavities located almost exactly between the well known South African hominid-bearing sites of
Sterkfontein and
Kromdraai and about 40km Northwest of the City of
Johannesburg,
South Africa.
History of Investigations
Cooper's has been investigated for fossils since 1938 when Julius Staz found a
hominid (ape-man) tooth in the mine dumps at the site while leading a student visit to nearby Sterkfontein.
C.K "Bob" Brain worked at the site in 1954 and recovered a large number of fossil animals but reported no hominids. He also named the deposits Cooper's A and B. Surprisingly, more than forty years later, work by researchers and students on this collection of Brain's noted two hominid specimens - an isolated tooth and a crushed face. In 2001
Lee Berger discovered a new deposit near where Brain had worked and called it Cooper's D. With
Duke University students, local technicians and South African students within days of opening these excavations, hominid remains were found.. Cooper's D is now recognized at the fifth richest hominid site in the
Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site (behind Sterkfontein,
Swartkrans, Drimolen and Kromdraai and one of the richest sites for early homninid stone tools of the Developed
Olduwan culture,
. Excavations are still underway at Cooper's and are currently being directed by Lee Berger and Christine Steininger of the Institute for Human Evolution and the
Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research at the
University of the Witwatersrand
Recovered Fossils
Tens of thousands of fossils have been recovered from Cooper's A and Coopers D with Coopers D now being by far the larger collection. Fossil of hominids have been attributed to both early
Homo as well as
Paranthropus robustus. Other fauna include many extinct
pigs, giant extinct
giraffe,
monkeys,
hyenas, sabre-tooth and false sabre-tooth cats and abundant micro-fauna (mice and rodents
Tools
Cooper's D has provided a rich tool assemblage that has beenprovisionally assigned to the Developed Olduwan. Cooper's is arguably the second richest early stone tool site in the Cradle of Humankind area
.
Geology
Cooper's is a series of breccia-filled dolomitic caves that formed in fissures along geological faults
.
age of the deposits
Cooper's D has been absolutely dated to 1.65 to 1.8 million years old
. Cooper's A, based on the animals recovered, is thought to be about the same age
[.
]Other Related Links
Hominids
List of fossil sites
Lee Berger
Cradle of Humankind
Paranthropus robustus
Image:Coopers A.jpg|Coopers A viewed from the West.
Image:Coopers D.jpg|Coopers D from the East.
Further Information
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