Abstract
Previous studies have shown that the pelvis of an adult Australopithecus resembles that of a human neonate both in morphometric features and qualitative anatomical characters (Berge, 1993). In this study, the thin-plate spline was used to compare the shape of the ilium of Australopithecus (adult) and Homo (adult and neonate). The spline highlights three aspects of the ilium (anterior, medial and posterior), that feature significantly in the comparisons. The adult australopithecine and the human neonate are similar in all three of these aspects in the broad upper portion of the ilium. However, differences in shape are more apparent when the australopithecine is compared with the human adult. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that hominid evolution has been strongly influenced by heterochrony.
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© 1996 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Berge, C. (1996). The Evolution and Growth of the Hominid Pelvis. In: Marcus, L.F., Corti, M., Loy, A., Naylor, G.J.P., Slice, D.E. (eds) Advances in Morphometrics. NATO ASI Series, vol 284. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9083-2_38
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9083-2_38
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