Drimolen: a new hominid-bearing site in Gauteng, South Africa

The co-occurrence of Paranthropus robustus and early Homo in South Africa h as so far been firmly documented only at the site of Swartkrans.(1-4) Our a nalysis of a sample of 79 early hominid fossil specimens from the newly dis covered cave site of Drimolen confirms that Paranthropus [Australopithecus] robustus(5) was contemporaneous with early Homo in South Africa during the Plio-Pleistocene. In addition, analysis of the large number of robust aust ralopithecine dental remains from Drimolen demonstrates the considerable va riability in this taxon. The sub-sample of deciduous P. robustus teeth from Drimolen encompasses a wide range of the metrical and morphological variat ion observed in the robust australopithecine samples from Swartkrans and Kr omdraai. This finding supports the idea of a single, variable species of ro bust australopithecine in South Africa during the Plio-Pleistocene. At the game time, it weakens the hypothesis of the existence of two separate robus t australopithecine species (namely, P. robustus from the site of Kromdraai and P. crassidens from Swartkrans) in South Africa, as first proposed by B room(6) and later supported by others.(7-12).