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Reply to: Clusters of flowstone ages are not supported by statistical evidence

Nature volume 594, page E11 (2021)Cite this article

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The Original Article was published on 16 June 2021

replying to P. Hopley et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03586-0 (2021)

In the accompanying Comment1, Hopley et al. focus on our use of a kernel density estimator (KDE) to illustrate the periodicity that is present within a speleothem age spectrum. We agree with the limitations of the KDE, and indeed use it simply as a more robust visualization tool than the commonly used probability density function. We stress that our interpretation and conclusions do not hinge on the use of the KDE: the very same conclusions can be drawn from a simple histogram that we present—together with the KDE—in figure 2 of our Article2. This histogram conveys the same age distribution information as the KDE, and entirely vindicates our conclusions without any reference to the KDE.

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References

  1. Hopley, P., Vermeesch, P., Parrish, R. & Latham, A. Clusters of flowstone ages are not supported by statistical evidence. Nature, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03586-0 (2021).

  2. Pickering, R. et al. U–Pb-dated flowstones restrict South African early hominin record to dry climate phases. Nature 565, 226–229 (2019).

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  3. Vermeesch, P. On the visualisation of detrital age distributions. Chem. Geol. 312–313, 190–194 (2012).

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  4. Vermeesch, P. & Garzanti, E. Making geological sense of ‘Big Data’ in sedimentary provenance analysis. Chem. Geol. 409, 20–27 (2015).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Robyn Pickering

  2. Human Evolution Research Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Robyn Pickering, Terrence Ritzman & Benjamin J. Schoville

  3. The Australian Archaeomagnetism Laboratory, Department of Archaeology and History, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia

    Andy I. R. Herries

  4. Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Andy I. R. Herries & David S. Strait

  5. School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Jon D. Woodhead, John C. Hellstrom, Helen E. Green & Bence Paul

  6. Department of Neuroscience, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA

    Terrence Ritzman

  7. Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA

    Terrence Ritzman & David S. Strait

  8. School of Social Science, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Benjamin J. Schoville

  9. Evolutionary Science Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    John Hancox

Authors
  1. Robyn Pickering
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  2. Andy I. R. Herries
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  3. Jon D. Woodhead
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  6. Bence Paul
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  7. Terrence Ritzman
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  8. David S. Strait
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  9. Benjamin J. Schoville
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  10. John Hancox
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Contributions

R.P. coordinated the team effort, and all authors equally contributed to the drafting and reviewing of this Reply.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robyn Pickering.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Pickering, R., Herries, A.I.R., Woodhead, J.D. et al. Reply to: Clusters of flowstone ages are not supported by statistical evidence. Nature 594, E11 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03587-z

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