Allometric patterns of cranial bone thickness in fossil hominids

Abstract

The interspecific allometry of five measures of total cranial bone thickness is examined in 10 extant catarrhine genera and two fossil hominid samples representing A. africanus and Asian H. erectus. Analysis of the modern sample shows that most interspecific variation in vault thickness can be accounted for by variation in body size. Correlation values are moderate to high (r = 0.75-0.98), and all variables exhibit positive allometry. The bone thickness: body mass relationship of modern humans broadly conforms with that of other primates. However, in the distribution of relative thickness throughout the skull, H. sapiens is distinguished by relative thickening of the parietal and extreme relative thinning of the temporal squama. The bone thickness: body mass relationship in the two early hominid species is examined using published mean body weight estimates generated from post-cranial predictor variables. A. africanus exhibits great similarity to modern humans in its relation to the catarrhine regression data and in the distribution of relative thickness throughout the skull. H. erectus also shows a modern human-like pattern in the distribution of its relative thickness; however, its bone thickness: body mass relationship is dissimilar to that displayed by all other taxa, including the other hominid species. On the basis of these results, it is suggested that the published body weight estimate assigned to H. erectus greatly underestimates actual mean body size for Asian members of this species.

Possible causes and significance of cranial robusticity among Pleistocene–Early Holocene Australians

“…Vault thickness has also been shown to be allometrcially scaled to body size in modern humans (Gauld, 1996), and is sexually dimorphic and age-dependent, being higher in males and increasing with age in some populations including Aboriginal Australians (e.g. Brown et al, 1979;Smith et al, 1985).…”

Diploe thickness and cranial dimensions in males and females in mid-Anatolian population: An MRI study

“…In Table 1, Cranium dimensions and diploe thickness were measured on the sagittal and axial T1-weighted images according to below anthropological points [7,[9][10][11]. The measurements were obtained by digital ruler.…”

Natural history ofHomo erectus

“…We are all aware of the dangers inherent in such estimations, given both the assumption of the statistical inference and, in particular, the possibilities of different body proportions across taxa. However, with these caveats duly noted, estimates of body mass of H. erectus were attempted, using various postcranial (McHenry, 1992(McHenry, , 1994 and cranial (Aiello and Wood, 1994;Gauld, 1996) dimensions. Leaving aside estimates developed from the cranium, which tend not to work as effectively as those derived from the postcrania, particularly for larger-brained hominins (Delson et al, 2000;Stubblefield, 2002), stature is estimated to range between 148 -185 cm for known H. erectus specimens with related body mass estimates of between 46 -68 kg, if all geographic areas are included (Table 6).…”