Size and shape of the australopithecine pelvic bone |
| |
Authors: | F Marchal |
| |
Institution: | (1) Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Faculté de Médecine-Secteur Nord, Université de la Méditerranée Aix-Marseille II Boulevard Pierre Dramard, 13916 Marseille cedex 20, France |
| |
Abstract: | The recovery of several specimens allows to have a good knowledge of australopithecine pelvic bone anatomy. But despite this,
differences of opinion still exist regarding locomotory interpretations. The aim of this paper is to present results of a
new morphometric analysis of australopithecine pelvic bones to try to understand the reasons of this situation. It appears
that australopithecines exhibit the same overall architectural pattern as extant humans, the hominid pattern, just as all
African apes also exhibit the same pongid pattern. But, in this pattern, it is possible to clearly depict two subpatterns
corresponding to both generaAustralopithecus andHomo. Locomotory interpretations depend on the fact that some studies emphasize traits related to the hominid pattern (concluding
then on modern bipedalism) and others focus on trains characterizing australopithecine sub-pattern (concluding then on non-modern
bipedalism). |
| |
Keywords: | Australopithecines Pelvic bone Morphometrics Size and shape Human evolution |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|