120,000-year-old ostrich eggshells from South African midden (IMAGE)

University of California - Berkeley

120,000-year-old ostrich eggshells from South African midden

Caption

Ancient ostrich eggshells from Ysterfontein 1, a Middle Stone Age midden in South Africa. Shown are selected eggshells from the top layer of the midden dated by Uranium-Thorium (U-Th, or 230Th/U) geochronology, with their outer surfaces facing up. Scale bar is 1 cm. With new 230Th/U burial ages of ostrich eggshells, Ysterfontein 1 is the oldest well-dated marine shell midden, indicating humans adapted to systematically utilize coastal resources such as shellfish by ~120 thousand years ago.

Credit

Image courtesy of E. Niespolo.

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