The alpha taxonomy of Australopithecus at Sterkfontein: The postcranial evidence

Grine, Frederick E.

doi:10.1016/j.crpv.2019.01.004

Cited by 13 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 110 publications

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“…It is fair to say that partitioning Au. africanus in this—or any other—way has not received support from others familiar with the fossil evidence 38–42 …”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 96%

Birth of Australopithecus

Madison

Wood

2021

Evolutionary Anthropology

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The announcement of a fossilized child's skull discovered in a quarry in 1924 sub‐Saharan Africa might not have seemed destined to be a classic paper. This contribution focuses on anatomist Raymond Dart's 1925 paper in which he designated the Taungs skull the type specimen of Australopithecus africanus. We combine an account of Dart's training and experience, with a telling of the fossil's discovery, analysis, the initial response of a mostly skeptical community, and a review of subsequent discoveries that consolidated the case Dart made for a hitherto unknown human close relative. Dart's paper presented evidence that confirmed the prescience of Charles Darwin's prediction that Africa was the birthplace of modern humans. The Taungs skull's unique mix of great ape and human attributes eventually led to a paradigm shift in our understanding of human evolution.

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“…It is fair to say that partitioning Au. africanus in this—or any other—way has not received support from others familiar with the fossil evidence 38–42 …”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 96%

Birth of Australopithecus

Madison

Wood

2021

Evolutionary Anthropology

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“…If we consider the past and ongoing debates on the fossils recovered from Sterkfontein Member 4 [Grine 49,50 thoroughly reviewed craniodental and postcranial evidence from the southern African paleontological sites that would support the presence of one or more species in the A.…”

Section: Variation In the Australopithecus Assemblage Of Sterkfontein...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Australopithecus assemblage from Sterkfontein Member 4 (South Africa) and the concept of variation in palaeontology

Beaudet

2023

Evolutionary Anthropology

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Interpreting morphological variation within the early hominin fossil record is particularly challenging. Apart from the fact that there is no absolute threshold for defining species boundaries in palaeontology, the degree of variation related to sexual dimorphism, temporal depth, geographic variation or ontogeny is difficult to appreciate in a fossil taxon mainly represented by fragmentary specimens, and such variation could easily be conflated with taxonomic diversity. One of the most emblematic examples in paleoanthropology is the Australopithecus assemblage from the Sterkfontein Caves in South Africa. Whereas some studies support the presence of multiple Australopithecus species at Sterkfontein, others explore alternative hypotheses to explain the morphological variation within the hominin assemblage. In this review, I briefly summarize the ongoing debates surrounding the interpretation of morphological variation at Sterkfontein Member 4 before exploring two promising avenues that would deserve specific attention in the future, that is, temporal depth and nonhuman primate diversity.

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“…Recent studies of the StW 573 "Little foot" skeleton from Sterkfontein Member 2 renewed debates on the functional biology and taxonomy of the Plio-Pleistocene hominins from South Africa 11,13−15 . Nevertheless, the presence of two closely related Australopithecus taxa at Sterkfontein Member 4 is not widely accepted 16,17 because of the ambiguous research evidence and the fragmentary preservation of the fossils. Moreover, quantitative studies focused mainly on the craniodental remains and rarely considered morphological variation within a broad comparative setting.…”

Section: Mainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sacrum morphology supports taxonomic heterogeneity of Australopithecus africanus at Sterkfontein Member 4

Fornai

Krenn

Mitteröcker

et al. 2020

Preprint

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The presence of multiple Australopithecus species at Sterkfontein Member 4, South Africa (2.07 to 2.61 Ma) is highly contentious. Quantitative assessments of craniodental and postcranial variability remain inconclusive. Using geometric morphometrics, we compared the sacrum of the small-bodied, presumed female subadult Australopithecus africanus skeleton Sts 14 and the large, alleged male adult StW 431 against a geographically diverse sample of modern humans, and two species for each of the genera Gorilla, Pan and Pongo. The probabilities of sampling morphologies as distinct as Sts 14 and StW 431 from a single species ranged from 1.3 to 2.5% for the human sample, and from 0.0 to 4.5% for the ape sample, depending on the analysis performed. Neither differences in developmental or geologic age nor sexual dimorphism could account for the differences between StW 431 and Sts 14 sacra. These findings support earlier claims of taxonomic heterogeneity at Sterkfontein Member 4.

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The alpha taxonomy of Australopithecus at Sterkfontein: The postcranial evidence

Cited by 13 publications

References 110 publications

Birth of Australopithecus

Birth of Australopithecus

The Australopithecus assemblage from Sterkfontein Member 4 (South Africa) and the concept of variation in palaeontology

Sacrum morphology supports taxonomic heterogeneity of Australopithecus africanus at Sterkfontein Member 4

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