Ewass Oldupa (Trench 2)
Basic information
Sample name: Ewass Oldupa (Trench 2)

Sample aka: Geological Locality 63; Oldupai Gorge; Olduvai Gorge

Reference: J. Mercader, P. Akuku, N. Boivin, R. Bugumba, P. Bushozi, A. Camacho, T. Carter, S. Clarke, A. Cueva-Temprana, P. Durkin, J. Favreau, K. Fella, S. Haberle, S. Hubbard, J. Inwood, M. Itambu, S. Koromo, P. Lee, A. Mohammed, A. Mwambwiga, L. Olesilau, R. Patalano, P. Roberts, S. Rule, P. Saladie, G. Siljedal, M. Soto, Umbsaar, and Petraglia. 2021. Earliest Olduvai hominins exploited unstable environments ~ 2 million years ago. Nature Communications 12(3):1-15 [ER 3876]
Geography
Country: Tanzania



Coordinate: -2.95° S, 35.24° E
Coordinate basis: estimated from map

Time interval: Early Pleistocene

Max Ma: 2.015

Min Ma: 2

Age basis: Ar-Ar

Geography comments: coordinate estimated based on Fig. 1
the fossils are from Lower Bed 1 (see Fig. 1), which is bracketed by argon dates of 2.015 +/- 0.006 and about 2 Ma

Environment
Lithology: conglomerate

Taphonomic context: fluvial deposit

Archaeology: stone tools

Habitat comments: Lower Bed I facies include a "conglomeratic channel fill deposit... waxy claystones from trench 3... multi-storey fluvial channel belt deposits in trench 2"
specifically, trench 2 is "a multi-storey channel belt prograding into the lake", trench 3 is "a transgressive lakeshore", and trench 5 is "a sinuous channel flowing east"
there are 151, 188, an 201 artefacts in trenches 2, 3, and 5
there is "a lack of human modified fauna"

Methods
Life forms: carnivores,primates,ungulates,other small mammals,birds,turtles,other reptiles

Sampling methods: quarry,screenwash

Sample size: 121 specimens

Sampling comments: "Sediments from each trench were dry-sieved (0.5 cm mesh)"

Metadata
Sample number: 4254

Contributor: John Alroy

Enterer: John Alroy

Created: 2023-04-25 15:36:10

Modified: 2023-04-25 05:42:24

Abundance distribution
13 species
2 singletons
total count 121
geometric series index: 19.8
Fisher's α: 3.694
geometric series k: 0.7140
Hurlbert's PIE: 0.7392
Shannon's H: 1.8580
Good's u: 0.9837
Each square represents a species. Square sizes are proportional to counts.
Register
Tragelaphus strepsiceros4189 kg browser-grazer
Hippopotamus cf. gorgops2
Phacochoerus cf. africanus582 kg grazer-browser
Equus sp.7
plus one Perissodactyla
Panthera sp.1
plus seven Carnivora
Lepus sp.3
Crocuta crocuta266 kg carnivore
Atelerix broomi1
"Erinaceus broomi": this is a species of Atelerix according to Edwards et al. (2019, PeerJ)
Theropithecus oswaldi4
Testudines indet.57
"Chelonia"
Crocodylus sp.12
Aves indet.13
Proboscidea indet.10