Human skeletal remains from Mossgiel, N.S.W.

Pleistocene homogeneity and Holocene size reduction: the Australian human skeletal evidence

“…At the same time increasingly complex arguments for evolutionary continuity within this sequence have been formulated (Klaatsch 1908;Dubois 1922;Weidenreich 1943;Coon 1962; Thome and Wolpoff 1981;Wolpoff et al 1984). These arguments have been complicated by the continuing uncertainty which surrounds the chronology (Brothwell 1960;Koenigswald 1964a;Jaco b 1972Jaco b , 1976Sartono 1976Sartono , 1982 and taxonomy (Steslicka 1947;Koenigswald 1964b;Jacob 1976;Santa Luca 1980;Sartono 1982) of the South-East Asian hominids and the significance of variation within the terminal Pleistocene Australian remains (Macintosh 1967;Thome 1977;Freedman 1985).…”

“…In general, published interpretations of Australian Pleistocene skeletal variation have focused on a single aspect of that variation, predominantly cranial size and gross morphology (Thome 1976(Thome , 1977Thome and Wilson 1977;Pietrusewsky 1979). Other aspects of osteological variation, including temporal variation in the expression of discrete osteological traits, tooth size and variation within the postcranial skeleton have received comparatively little attention (Brown 1982;Kennedy 1984;Pietrusewsky 1984;Freedman 1985).This primarily reflects the influence of skeletal preservation in determining methodological approach. Statistical or morphological analyses, no matter how elaborate (Thome and Wilson 1977;Wilson 1981), are only as good as those data on which they are based.…”

“…4. Keilor -Although Keilor has always been assumed to be male (Birdsell 1967;Thorne 1977;Freedman 1985) this issue has not been examined in detail. Wunderly (1943), who originally described it.…”

Mossgiel cranial thickness: A correction

“…On checking those measurements it was immediately apparent that the latter measurements were half as big as they should have been, due to the rather unusual design of a specially made spreading caliper. The corrected measurements (in mm) differ from, but are of the same order as, those of Brown (1987) The comments made about Mossgiel cranial thickness in Freedman (1985) are clearly incorrect.…”

“…Warme, J. 1971 In a recent paper Brown (1987) has included cranial thickness measurements of the Mossgiel skull and points out that they differ markedly from those previously published (Freedman 1985). On checking those measurements it was immediately apparent that the latter measurements were half as big as they should have been, due to the rather unusual design of a specially made spreading caliper.…”