Sites

Koobi Fora Area 104

Site type:
Open air
Site function:
Na
Lat/Long:
3.98, 36.32
Country:
Kenya
Date range max:
1,790,000 Bp
Date range min:
1,630,000 Bp
Classifications:
Homo, Homo ergaster, Paranthropus, Paranthropus boisei
Time periods:
Calabrian, Pleistocene
Cultures:
Oldowan
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Homo ergaster (KNM-ER 3733 cast) at Göteborgs Naturhistoriska Museum 8592

Homo ergaster (KNM-ER 3733 cast) at Göteborgs Naturhistoriska Museum 8592

Area 104 collection area in the Koobi Fora region has contributed great evidence for hominin evolution by providing fossil evidence from various taxa such as Homo ergaster and  Paranthropus boisei [1][2].

Specimens

Age MinAge Max
KNM-ER 1804Mandible17700001780000
KNM-ER 3733Cranium16300001780000
KNM-ER 3885Premolar17700001790000
KNM-ER 3886Molar17700001780000
KNM-ER 6128Premolar17700001780000
KNM-ER 810AMandible17700001780000
KNM-ER 810BMolar17700001780000
KNM-ER 812Mandible17700001780000
KNM-ER 813Foot bone17700001780000
KNM-ER 814ACranium17700001780000

Description

Area 104 is bounded on the south by the Koobi Fora Ridge Road, on the west by a prominent fault that separates it from Area 100, on the north by the course of Il Iriyamang’werr, and on the east by the no longer used old road from points south to Ileret [3].

Sediments in central Area 104 are exposed along a series of sparsely vegetated badlands. Gullies provide most of the sedimentary exposure, as north/northwest trending ephemeral streams erode the landscape. The A2 marker bed is an important stratigraphic level in Area 104. This has been used as a key bed to correlate the sedimentary successions and subsequently infer dates for many of the hominin fossil remains in Area 104 and other Koobi Fora sites. It lies within the transitional zone for the Olduvai-Matuyama boundary and thus is effectively dated at ~1.78 Ma. On the other hand, dates for the White Tuff above the A2 marker range from 1.60 Ma to 1.63 Ma [2][4][5]

KNM-ER 3733 is the most important find in Area 104. It is a rare example of a relatively complete cranium of a Homo ergaster [6][7] - or to some researchers an "African Homo erectus" or a Homo erectus sensu lato. KNM-ER 3733 has an interpolated age of 1.63 Ma being stratigraphically located ~1.5m below the White Tuff. Several Paranthropus boisei fossils and a talus from a Homo sp. were also recovered from Area 104 at 4m below the A2 marker giving them a date of 1.78 Ma [6][2][8].

Sources

Cited References

  1. 1.

  2. 2.

  3. 3.

  4. 4.

  5. 5.

  6. 6.

    Further hominids from the Plio-Pleistocene of Koobi Fora Kenya

    American Journal of Physical Anthropology , 67(2)

  7. 7.

  8. 8.

This page was last edited on November 10, 2022 at 08:14:44 UTC