Body size, body proportions, and encephalization in a Middle Pleistocene archaic human from northern China

Abstract

The unusual discovery of associated cranial and postcranial elements from a single Middle Pleistocene fossil human allows us to calculate body proportions and relative cranial capacity (encephalization quotient) for that individual rather than rely on estimates based on sample means from unassociated specimens. The individual analyzed here (Jinniushan) from northeastern China at 260,000 years ago is the largest female specimen yet known in the human fossil record and has body proportions (body height relative to body breadth and relative limb length) typical of coldadapted populations elsewhere in the world. Her encephalization quotient of 4.15 is similar to estimates for late Middle Pleistocene humans that are based on mean body size and mean brain size from unassociated specimens.climatic adaptation ͉ paleoanthropology ͉ Pleistocene

Stature estimation from complete long bones in the Middle Pleistocene humans from the Sima de los Huesos, Sierra de Atapuerca (Spain)

“…This primitive biotype was present not only in colder climates, as predicted by the cylindrical thermoregulatory model proposed by Ruff (1991Ruff ( , 1994, but also in temperate and/or tropical Asia and Africa. Subsequent discoveries in Asia (Rosenberg et al, 2006) and Africa (Grine et al, 1995;Simpson et al, 2008;and see;Trinkaus, 2009 ) support this view. Apparently, this primitive biotype only changed around 200 ka with the emergence of H. sapiens and its slender, narrower, and lighter body (=derived biotype).…”

“…Stature in the jinniushan female partial skeleton from China, dated to c. 260 ka, has been estimated at 168.8 cm using Trotter's (1970) formula for ulna length (26.0 cm) in Euroamerican women (Zune, 1990;Rosenberg et al, 2006). Sj0vold's formula yields a stature estimate of 166.7 cm (Table 4 ).…”

“…However, the relationship between stature and long bone length may differ among populations and, as a consequence, populationspecific regression equations are often used for individuals from different populations. For example, many attempts at stature reconstruction from fossil human long bone specimens generally involve the use of regression analysis based on the Trotter and Gleser equations (Trinkaus, 1983;Vandermeersch and Trinkaus, 1995;Ruff et al, 1997;Carretero et al, 1997Carretero et al, , 1999Rosenberg et al, 2006).…”

The evolution of the human pelvis: changing adaptations to bipedalism, obstetrics and thermoregulation

“…Again, these two aspects of pelvic breadth are probably linked biomechanically [2,60]. The birth canal is broad both at the inlet, partly because of long superior pubic rami, and at the outlet; the shape of the midplane is not clear owing to poor preservation of the iliac spines in the relevant fossils [2,37,60,74,116,119].…”

“…Pelvic anatomy in H. heidelbergensis (sometimes referred to as 'Archaic H. sapiens' 4 ) is known primarily from high-latitude individuals from Europe and Asia (figure 3; [37,97,116,119,120]). These pelvises are very large overall and remarkably wide: the specimens from Atapuerca (Spain) and Jinniushan (China), for example, have the largest bi-iliac breadths in the human fossil record, and are wider than the average for any modern human population studied by Ruff [2].…”