Non-metric traits in upper limbs: a data synthesis

Voisin, Jean

doi:10.1007/s13219-011-0050-2

Cited by 20 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 144 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…First, the subclavian sulcus of the new fossil is barely perceptible. In distinction to the clavicles of modern humans, those of extant nonhuman hominoids often lack or show only weakly excavated sulci (e.g., Voisin, ), similar to that of StW 606, suggesting that the individual from which the fossil derived possessed a subclavius that was comparably developed to those of modern apes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hominin vertebrae and upper limb bone fossils from Sterkfontein Caves, South Africa (1998–2003 excavations)

Pickering

Heaton

Clarke

et al. 2018

American J Phys Anthropol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objectives: We provide descriptions and functional interpretations of 11 >2.0 Ma hominin vertebral and upper limb fossils from Sterkfontein. Materials and methods:We employed taphonomic methods to describe postmortem damage observed on the fossils. We used osteometric tools and measurements to generate quantitative descriptions, which were added to qualitative descriptions of the fossils. These observations were then interpreted using published data on the same skeletal elements from extant and extinct hominoid taxa.Results: Six of the fossils carry carnivore tooth marks. Two vertebrae show morphologies that are consistent with fully developed lordosis of the lumbar spine, but which are not completely consistent with bipedal loading of the same intensity and/or frequency as reflected in the lumbars of modern humans. A clavicle shows a combination of humanlike and apelike features, the latter of which would have endowed its hominin with good climbing abilities. When combined, analyses of fragmentary radius and ulna fossils yield more ambiguous results. Discussion:The new fossil collection presents a mix of bipedal and climbing features. It is unclear whether this mix indicates that all Sterkfontein hominins of >2.0 Ma were terrestrial bipeds who retained adaptations for climbing or whether the collection samples two differently adapted, coeval hominins, Australopithecus africanus and Australopithecus prometheus, both of which are represented at Sterkfontein by skull remains. Regardless, the significant frequency of tooth-marked fossils in the sample might indicate that predation was a selection pressure that maintained climbing adaptations in at least some Sterkfontein hominins of this period.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hominin vertebrae and upper limb bone fossils from Sterkfontein Caves, South Africa (1998–2003 excavations)

Pickering

Heaton

Clarke

et al. 2018

American J Phys Anthropol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…They are usually recorded as present or absent. Around 200 variables have been described for the skull (Le Double, 1903;Ossenberg, 1976;Hauser, & De Stefano, 1989;Pink, Maier, Pilloud, & Hefner, 2016), and a similar number have been identified for the post-cranial skeleton (Finnegan, 1978;Donlon, 2000;Voisin, 2012;Verna, et al 2013). These traits should not be confused with the macromorphoscopic traits, such as bone shape, bone feature shape, or sutural shape (Hefner, & Linde, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

A Parametric Bootstrap for the Mean Measure of Divergence

Zertuche¹,

Peñaloza²

2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

For more than 50 years the Mean Measure of Divergence (MMD) has been one of the most prominent tools used in anthropology for the study of non-metric traits. However, one of the problems, in anthropology including palaeoanthropology (more often there), is the lack of big enough samples or the existence of samples without sufficiently measured traits. Since 1969, with the advent of bootstrapping techniques, this issue has been tackled successfully in many different ways. Here, we present a parametric bootstrap technique based on the fact that the transformed θ, obtained from the Anscombe transformation to stabilize the variance, nearly follows a normal distribution with zero mean and variance σ 2 = 1/(N + 1/2), where N is the size of the measured trait. When the probabilistic distribution is known, parametric procedures offer more powerful results than non-parametric ones. We profit from knowing the probabilistic distribution of θ to develop a parametric bootstrapping method. We explain it carefully with mathematical support. We give examples, both with artificial data and with real ones. Our results show that this parametric bootstrap procedure is a powerful tool to study samples with scarcity of data.

show abstract

The Shoulder Girdle of KSD-VP-1/1

Melillo

2015

Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Non-metric traits in upper limbs: a data synthesis

Cited by 20 publications

References 144 publications

Hominin vertebrae and upper limb bone fossils from Sterkfontein Caves, South Africa (1998–2003 excavations)

Hominin vertebrae and upper limb bone fossils from Sterkfontein Caves, South Africa (1998–2003 excavations)

A Parametric Bootstrap for the Mean Measure of Divergence

The Shoulder Girdle of KSD-VP-1/1

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About