Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps and text-figures
- List of plates
- Introductory Note
- Foreword
- Introduction
- I The general geological evidence
- II Review of earlier reports on the fauna
- III Mammalian fauna: other than Bovidae
- IV Mammalian fauna: Bovidae
- V Non-mammalian fauna
- VI Review of the faunal evidence
- VII The problems of the climatic sequence
- VIII Dating by the potassium–argon technique
- IX Note on fossil human discoveries and cultural evidence
- Appendix 1 Preliminary notes on the stratigraphy of Beds I–IV, Olduvai Gorge, Tanganyika
- Appendix 2 Descriptive list of the named localities in Olduvai Gorge
- References
- Map
- Index
- Plate section
- Plate section
- Plate section
- Plate section
II - Review of earlier reports on the fauna
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps and text-figures
- List of plates
- Introductory Note
- Foreword
- Introduction
- I The general geological evidence
- II Review of earlier reports on the fauna
- III Mammalian fauna: other than Bovidae
- IV Mammalian fauna: Bovidae
- V Non-mammalian fauna
- VI Review of the faunal evidence
- VII The problems of the climatic sequence
- VIII Dating by the potassium–argon technique
- IX Note on fossil human discoveries and cultural evidence
- Appendix 1 Preliminary notes on the stratigraphy of Beds I–IV, Olduvai Gorge, Tanganyika
- Appendix 2 Descriptive list of the named localities in Olduvai Gorge
- References
- Map
- Index
- Plate section
- Plate section
- Plate section
- Plate section
Summary
In the chapter which Dr A. T. Hopwood wrote for my Olduvai book, published in 1951, he dealt with certain aspects of the fauna of Olduvai. He gave his interpretation of the fossil evidence then available in respect of the age of Beds I to IV. He concluded that these four beds formed ‘a single unit’ and that, in his own words, ‘there is no faunistic evidence to suggest that the lower part of the Olduvai series is of Lower Pleistocene age’.
In 1935 (Leakey, 1935) I had published the view that Bed I of Olduvai was of Lower Pleistocene age; but because of Dr Hopwood's categorical statement, based upon his study of the fauna, I later retracted this opinion, and in the 1951 book I accepted his suggestion and treated the whole of the main Olduvai sequence as belonging to the Middle Pleistocene. In spite of this, however, Dr D. G. Maclnnes and I felt constrained to point out that we considered the break between Beds I and II and Bed IV was more significant than Dr Hopwood had suggested. However, we accepted the fossils of Beds I and II as representing a single faunal unit, for we did not, in those days, see any reason to challenge the identifications which were given in Dr Hopwood's list.
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- Olduvai Gorge , pp. 7 - 11Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1965