tributed to this collection, she found that primates — baboons and 

 hominids — made up 217c or less than half that in the Hanging Rem- 

 nant sample. The figure for Member 2, based on a sample of 70.524 

 fossil pieces, was rather similar at 25%. 



Concerning these four species of baboon and two of hominid. 

 which naturally showed a wide range of body weights, it was in- 

 teresting to observe that those species with the greatest body weights 

 also had the highest proportion of juveniles represented among their 

 fossils. Furthermore, cranial remains were disproportionately com- 

 mon in relation to other skeletal parts and we were faced with "the 

 mystery of the missing bodies." An obvious possibility was that we 

 were dealing with the food remains of a carnivore, such as a leopard, 

 with a preferred prey size, and this suspicion was confirmed by the 

 specific damage that some of the bones had suffered (Newman. 

 1993). One well-known specimen, the calvaria of a hominid child, 

 was found to have two punctures in its parietal bones and the dis- 

 tance between these was matched by the spacing of the lower ca- 

 nines of a fossil leopard from the same part of the cave. The recon- 

 struction that I suggested was that the child had been killed by a 

 leopard, perhaps by the usual throat-bite method, and that it had 

 then been picked up by its head, as leopards are inclined to do. and 

 dragged off to a feeding place within the dark recesses of the cave. 

 This carrying behavior, observed in contemporary leopards with 

 monkey or baboon prey, results in the upper canines gripping the 

 face of the prey, while the lower canines penetrate the back of the 

 skull. 



The detailed taphonomic analysis of the fossil assemblages from 

 Swartkrans Members 1 and 2 suggested that hominids and baboons 

 came to shelter within the entrance area of the cave on cold winter 

 nights and that they were preyed upon there by leopards and saber- 

 tooth cats. The predators took their victims to the lower parts of the 

 cave and ate them: what scraps survived their attention, and that of 

 the scavengers such as hyenas — whose coprolites in the deposits 

 testify to their visits — contributed to the fossil assemblage. 



In broad perspective, my impression is that the life of hominids 

 in environments such as that of the Sterkfontein valley one and a 

 half million vears ago would have been a hazardous one. calling for 



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