The hunted or the scavenged? Australopith accumulation by brown hyenas at Sterkfontein (South Africa)

Abstract

In the present study, we report brown hyena tooth marks on australopiths from Sterkfontein's Plio-Pleistocene-age Member 4 (South Africa). Classic taphonomic analyses and the implementation of new techniques, including Geometric Morphometrics and Machine Learning, are combined to identify the modifying agent and provide the first direct evidence of hyenid scavenging on australopiths. This hypothesis adds a new perspective to the relationships between carnivores and hominins in the Cradle by expanding on previous hypotheses proposing that leopards were the primary predator and bone accumulator of early hominin remains at South African palaeocaves.