Maps and Legends

The Taung fossil sites are located at the south-eastern margin of the Kalahari desert along the Ghaap escarpment

TaungSkull

Map of the primary Pliocene/Pleistocene deposits at the Buxton/Norlim quarry site in the Taung district. The older tufa cave deposits, on the order of 2.8 million years old, are at the base of the Dart Pinnacle. Deposit D-A is the one most closely associated with the Taung Australopithecus africanus juvenile skull. (From McKee & Kuykendall, 2016).

TaungSkull

Topographic map of fossil sites at the Buxton/Northern Limeworks. Sites 1 and 2 are respectively the Hrdlička and Dart deposits.

TaungSkull

GPS coordinates for localities of fossiliferous sites at the Buxton Limeworks (Taung)

# Thabaseek Tufa Latitude (°,',") Longitude (°,',") AMSL (m)
1 Hrdlička deposits S 27 37 9.90 E 24 38 1.26 1147
2 Dart deposits S 27 37 10.26 E 24 37 59.40 1145
3 Tobias Pinnacle deposit S 27 37 12.90 E 24 37 54.36 1164
4 Berger Cave complex S 27 37 9.30 E 24 37 50.46 1172
# Norlim Tufa Latitude (°,',") Longitude (°,',") AMSL (m)
5 LSN Cave S 27 37 5.10 E 24 37 48.72 1148
6 Lucky Moon cave complex S 27 37 4.08 E 24 37 49.08 1158
7 Innominate Cave S 27 37 3.36 E 24 37 49.38 1153
8 Quinney Cave S 27 37 1.92 E 24 37 51.30 1151
9 Cut-through Alley S 27 37 1.80 E 24 37 52.08 1147
10 Black Earth Cave S 27 37 1.50 E 24 37 57.00 1158
# Oxland Tufa Latitude (°,',") Longitude (°,',") AMSL (m)
11 Peabody's Equus Site S 27 36 57.24 E 24 37 48.00 1146
12 Equus Cave S 27 36 56.16 E 24 37 46.50 1147
13 Blom Cave S 27 36 56.34 E 24 37 48.90 1149
14 Acacia Cave S 27 36 55.20 E 24 37 48.96 1162
15 Satan Cave S 27 36 50.70 E 24 37 46.74 1158
16 Oxland large mammal site S 27 36 46.92 E 24 37 35.28 1179
# Blue Pool Tufa Latitude (°,',") Longitude (°,',") AMSL (m)
17 Alcove Cave S 27 36 45.72 E 24 37 43.08 1150

Reference:

J.K. McKee 1994, Catalogue of fossil sites at the Buxton Limeworks, Taung. Palaeont afr 31:73–81.

Tufa accretions(“flows”) at the Buxton/Norlim limeworks, as determined by Peabody (1954). Tufa is a secondary limestone deposit that formed the caves at Taung. Peabody wrote of the Thabaseek as the oldest Tufa, but after further exposure by the quarrying of the Northern Lime Company, it became clear that the Thabaseek tufa overlayed the Norlim tufa, making the Norlim tufa and its sites more interesting.

TaungSkull