Reply to Klein: Ysterfontein 1 shell midden (South Africa) and the antiquity of coastal adaptation.

Klein (1) challenges two interpretations in Niespolo et al. (2). Regarding his first point, we maintain that Ysterfontein 1 (YFT1) does provide the oldest known example of full coastal adaptation as indicated by the presence of shell middens (cf. ref. 3). Klein inaccurately characterizes the age of the deepest shell midden layers at Klasies River Main (KRM) given in ref. 4. While other workers identify even the oldest light brown sand (LBS) layer at KRM as similar in age or younger than the deepest deposits at YFT1 (cf. refs. 5 and 6), the reference cited by Klein (4) and subsequent dating efforts show that the shell midden lenses in beach-sand … [↵][1]2To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: niespolo{at}caltech.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1