Palynological investigations at the Makapansgat Limeworks: An australopithecine site

Results of the palynological investigations in the four depositional areas in the Makapansgat Limeworks cavern suggest that these four areas represent asynchronous depositional episodes. Differences in the abundance of non-arboreal and arboreal pollen, species diversity, and species composition may be a result of regional climatic changes, local vegetational changes due to the availability of moisture in the vicinity of the cavern, or shifts in the source area of the pollen due to local topographic changes. The pollen floras suggest that a diversity of habitats and thus a diversity of resources were present in the vicinity of the Makapansgat cavern during the deposition of these cave sediments.