ALBERT

Description: The manufacture of geometric engravings is generally interpreted as indicative of modern cognition and behaviour. Key questions in the debate on the origin of such behaviour are whether this innovation is restricted to Homo sapiens, and whether it has a uniquely African origin. Here we report on a fossil freshwater shell assemblage from the Hauptknochenschicht ('main bone layer') of Trinil (Java, Indonesia), the type locality of Homo erectus discovered by Eugene Dubois in 1891 (refs 2 and 3). In the Dubois collection (in the Naturalis museum, Leiden, The Netherlands) we found evidence for freshwater shellfish consumption by hominins, one unambiguous shell tool, and a shell with a geometric engraving. We dated sediment contained in the shells with (40)Ar/(39)Ar and luminescence dating methods, obtaining a maximum age of 0.54 +/- 0.10 million years and a minimum age of 0.43 +/- 0.05 million years. This implies that the Trinil Hauptknochenschicht is younger than previously estimated. Together, our data indicate that the engraving was made by Homo erectus, and that it is considerably older than the oldest geometric engravings described so far. Although it is at present not possible to assess the function or meaning of the engraved shell, this discovery suggests that engraving abstract patterns was in the realm of Asian Homo erectus cognition and neuromotor control.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Joordens, Josephine C A -- d'Errico, Francesco -- Wesselingh, Frank P -- Munro, Stephen -- de Vos, John -- Wallinga, Jakob -- Ankjaergaard, Christina -- Reimann, Tony -- Wijbrans, Jan R -- Kuiper, Klaudia F -- Mucher, Herman J -- Coqueugniot, Helene -- Prie, Vincent -- Joosten, Ineke -- van Os, Bertil -- Schulp, Anne S -- Panuel, Michel -- van der Haas, Victoria -- Lustenhouwer, Wim -- Reijmer, John J G -- Roebroeks, Wil -- England -- Nature. 2015 Feb 12;518(7538):228-31. doi: 10.1038/nature13962. Epub 2014 Dec 3.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉1] Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, PO Box 9515, 2300RA, Leiden, The Netherlands [2] Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. ; 1] Universite de Bordeaux, CNRS UMR 5199, Allee Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 33615 Pessac, France [2] Institute of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, University of Bergen, Oysteinsgate 3PO Box 7805, Bergen, Norway. ; Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Darwinweg 2, PO Box 9517, 2300RA, Leiden, The Netherlands. ; 1] School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University, Australian Capital Territory, 0200 Canberra, Australia [2] National Museum of Australia, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Canberra, Australia. ; 1] Wageningen University, Soil Geography and Landscape Group &Netherlands Centre for Luminescence Dating, PO Box 47, 6700AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands [2] Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Mekelweg 15, 2629JB, Delft, The Netherlands. ; Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. ; 1] Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, PO Box 9515, 2300RA, Leiden, The Netherlands [2] Prinses Beatrixsingel 21, 6301VK, Valkenburg, The Netherlands. ; Universite de Bordeaux, CNRS UMR 5199, Allee Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 33615 Pessac, France. ; 1] Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, UMR 7205, Institut de Systematique, Evolution, Biodiversite, CP51, 55 Rue Buffon, 75005 Paris, France [2] Biotope Recherche et Developpement, 22 Boulevard Marechal Foch, 34140 Meze, France. ; Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, PO Box 1600, 3800BP, Amersfoort, The Netherlands. ; 1] Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands [2] Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Darwinweg 2, PO Box 9517, 2300RA, Leiden, The Netherlands [3] Natuurhistorisch Museum Maastricht, De Bosquetplein 7, 6211KJ, Maastricht, The Netherlands. ; 1] Faculte de Medecine, Universite d'Aix-Marseille, EFS, CNRS UMR 7268, Boulevard Pierre Dramard, 13344 Marseille, France [2] Department of Medical Imaging Hopital Nord, Assistance Publique - Hopitaux de Marseille, Chemin de Bourrellys, 13915 Marseille, France. ; Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, PO Box 9515, 2300RA, Leiden, The Netherlands.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25470048" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Calibration of the geological time scale is achieved by independent radioisotopic and astronomical dating, but these techniques yield discrepancies of approximately 1.0% or more, limiting our ability to reconstruct Earth history. To overcome this fundamental setback, we compared astronomical and 40Ar/39Ar ages of tephras in marine deposits in Morocco to calibrate the age of Fish Canyon sanidine, the most widely used standard in 40Ar/39Ar geochronology. This calibration results in a more precise older age of 28.201 +/- 0.046 million years ago (Ma) and reduces the 40Ar/39Ar method's absolute uncertainty from approximately 2.5 to 0.25%. In addition, this calibration provides tight constraints for the astronomical tuning of pre-Neogene successions, resulting in a mutually consistent age of approximately 65.95 Ma for the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kuiper, K F -- Deino, A -- Hilgen, F J -- Krijgsman, W -- Renne, P R -- Wijbrans, J R -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2008 Apr 25;320(5875):500-4. doi: 10.1126/science.1154339.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Faculty of Geosciences, Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3584 CD Utrecht, Netherlands.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18436783" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Detrital thermochronology can be used as a tool to quantitatively constrain exhumation rates and its spatial variability from active mountain belts. Commonly usedmethods for this purpose assume a steady-state relationship between tectonic uplift and erosion. However, this assumption does not account for the transitory response of a dynamic orogenic system to changes in the boundary conditions.We propose a different approach that uses the observed detrital age distributions as “markers” of the pastexhumation, and of the present-day erosion and mixing occurring in a river system. In this paper, we present new 40 Ar/ 39 Ar biotite and white mica age distributions for nineteen modern river sands from the Eastern Alps north of the Periadriaticline. The results present three main clusters of ages at ~0.5-50, ~60-120, ~250-350 Ma that record the main orogenic phases in this sector of the Alps. We have applied two numerical methods to the cooling agesto a) linearly compute the spatial variability of the relative present-day erosion of a set of 4 detrital mineral samplesfrom drainage basins along the Inn river, andb) quantify the rates of the cooling and erosion inthe Tauern Window during Paleocene-Miocene time of the Alpine orogeny. Our results suggest a 0.34-0.84mm/yr range ofexhumation rates for the Tauern Window since the Miocene. Our estimates of exhumation rates of the western Tauern Window are higher than those for the eastern Tauern Window, which is consistent with the previous studies.

Description: Single-grain 40Ar/39Ar dating of detrital white mica from Oligocene to Miocene (31-13 Ma) sediments of the North Alpine Foreland Basin in Switzerland reveals three prominent age clusters indicating cooling of the source rocks below 350-420{degrees}C in Carboniferous, Early Permian, and Tertiary times. Precise calibration of sedimentation age throughout the study area enables the thermal evolution of the hinterland in space and time to be precisely traced. Palaeozoic mica ages are documented in all samples and are used as additional provenance indicators. Tertiary mica ages are restricted to sediments younger than 21 Ma, and are only found in central and western drainage systems. Tertiary micas document progressively increasing average cooling rates up to 34-41{degrees}C/Ma in the source area (Lepontine Dome), between 21 Ma and 14 Ma. The observed cooling rates and the time-span for rapid cooling in the source area (between 19 and 14 Ma) agree with thermal models derived from currently exposed rocks of the Lepontine metamorphic dome. This study proves that detrital mica geochronology is a robust tool for deciphering the thermal histories of ancient orogens which are no longer exposed today.

Description: The problem of determining an exact isotopic age of hydrocarbon emplacement is complex because minerals suitable for dating with common isotopic methods are often lacking in the sedimentary domain. However, the igneous quartz from the Cretaceous volcanic rocks that host the gas reservoir in the Songliao Basin (northeastern China), contains abundant secondary fluid inclusions with high concentrations of K and high partial pressures of methane trapped during gas emplacement. Quartz with abundant K-rich fluid inclusions provides an excellent closed system well suited for 40Ar/39Ar dating. Three igneous quartz samples were measured by stepwise crushing to release the inclusion-based argon gas. All three samples yielded well-defined isochrons with ages in close agreement, precisely constraining the gas emplacement at 42.4 {+/-} 0.5 Ma (2{sigma}) below the Daqing oil field in the Songliao Basin, extending possible gas reservoirs from the upper Cretaceous to the middle Eocene.

Description: Aeolian-fluvial Upper Rotliegend sandstones from Bebertal outcrops (Flechtingen High, North Germany) are an analogue for deeply buried Permian gas reservoir sandstones of the North German Basin (NGB). We present a paragenetic sequence as well as thermochronological constraints to reconstruct the diagenetic evolution and to identify periods of enhanced mesodiagenetic fluid–rock reactions in sandstones from the southern flank of the NGB. Bebertal sandstones show comparatively high concentrations of mesodiagenetically formed K-feldspar but low concentrations of illite cements. Illite-rich grain rims were found to occur preferentially directly below sedimentary bounding surfaces, i.e. aeolian superimposition surfaces, and indicate the lowest intergranular volume. Illite grain rims also indicate sandstone sections with low quartz and feldspar cement concentrations but high loss of intergranular volume due to compaction. 40 Ar– 39 Ar age determination of pronounced K-feldspar grain overgrowths and replacements of detrital grains indicates two generations: an early (Triassic) and a late (Jurassic) generation. The latter age range is similar to published diagenetic illite ages from buried Rotliegend reservoir sandstones. The first generation suggests an early intense mesodiagenetic fluid flow with remarkably high K + activity synchronous with fast burial of proximal, initial graben sediments on the southern flank of the NGB. Accordingly, zircon fission-track data indicate that the strata already reached the zircon partial annealing zone of approximately 200°C during early mesodiagenesis. Zircon (U–Th)/He ages (92 ± 12 Ma) as well as apatite fission-track ages (~ 71–75 Ma) indicate the termination of mesodiagenetic processes, caused by rapid exhumation of the Flechtingen High during Late Cretaceous basin inversion.