ABSTRACT
In southern Africa, the youngest “ robust” australopithecine fossils are probably those from Swartkrans Member 3. When only a single “ robust” australopithecine fossil was known from this unit, the possibility existed that it had been reworked from older units (either Member 1 or Member 2) (Brain, 1982, 1985). However, Member 3 has now provided 25 skeletal parts from at least six “ robust” australopithecine individuals, and some are undoubtedly in situ (Brain, this volume, chapter 20; Grine, this volume, chapter 14). Their geologic age is difficult to gauge (Brain, this volume, chapter 20), but on faunal and artifactual grounds, Member 3 does not appear to be readily distinguishable from Member 1, which is bracketed between roughly 1.8 and 1.5 Myr by faunal correlation to eastern Africa (Vrba, 1982). On the other hand, thermoluminescence determinations by Vogel (1985) suggest that Member 3 may be only half as old as Member 1, in which case its “ robust” australopithecine fossils could postdate 1 Myr. They could thus be substantially younger than any known “ robust” australopithecines from eastern Africa.
