The researchers say Rising Star Cave was dated using a combination of optically stimulated luminescence of sediments with uranium - thorium dating and paleomagnetic analyses of flowstones to establish how the cave sediments relate to the geological timescale in the Dinaledi Chamber. (seeker.com)
The researchers hope to get a rough age range for the fossils by dating flowstones — calcite structures formed slowly by dripping water — in adjacent rock layers. (discovermagazine.com)
So while other teams may have been correct in dating these so - called flowstones to as late as 2.2 million years old, the skeleton itself is much older, Bruxelles and Clarke argue. (sciencemag.org)