The use of cranial variables for the estimation of body mass in fossil hominins
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8314044 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Muhammad A Spocter (0000-0003-1174-7444, University of the Witwatersrand, corresponding author), Paul R Manger (0000-0002-1881-2854, University of the Witwatersrand) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 134 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 92-105 |
| Publication date | 2007-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Journal of Physical Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-9483 • E-ISSN: 1096-8644 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/ajpa.20641 |
| PMID | 17568446 |
| OpenAlex | W2171372708 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 11 |
| References cited | 50 |
Estimating body mass/size/weight remains a crucial precursor to the evaluation of relative brain size and to achieving an understanding of brain evolution in fossil species. Despite the obvious close association between the metrics of postcranial elements and body mass a number of factors combine to reduce their utility. This study examines the feasibility of cranial variables for predicting body mass. The use of traditional regression procedures, independent contrasts analysis, and variance partitioning all support the hypothesis that cranial variables are correlated with body mass even when taking phylogeny into account, with r values typically ranging between 0.52 and 0.98. Body mass estimates derived for fossil hominins using cranial variables are similar to those obtained from previous studies using either cranial or postcranial elements. In particular, upper facial breadth and orbital height display strong predictive capability. Average body masses derived from Least Squares Regression (LSR) equations were used to calculate estimates of body mass for three hominin species. This resulted in estimates of between 30 kg and 47 kg for Australopithecus africanus , 48 kg and 52 kg for Paranthropus robustus , and 75 kg for Homo neanderthalensis . It is proposed that regression equations derived for the order primates are used to estimate body mass for archaic hominins, while hominoid based equations are most suited for Homo . Am J Phys Anthropol, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc
Australopithecus · Biology · Body weight · Postcrania · Regression · Regression analysis · Statistics · Zoology · Mathematics · Paleontology · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Primate Behavior and Ecology · Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
The mass of the human brain
Hominin life history
Body mass of wild bornean orangutans living in human‐dominated landscapes
Predicting euarchontan body mass
Estimating fossil hominin body mass from cranial variables
Alternative methods for calculating percentage prediction error and their implications for predicting body mass in fossil taxa
A volumetric technique for fossil body mass estimation applied to Australopithecus afarensis
New early Pleistocene hominin teeth from the Swartkrans Formation, South Africa
How Our Ancestors Broke through the Gray Ceiling
Estimating body mass from skeletal material
The enigmatic molar from Gondolin, South Africa
Allometric scaling in the postcanine dentition with reference to primate diets
The Comparative Method in Evolutionary Biology
Rethinking allometry
A Concordance Correlation Coefficient to Evaluate Reproducibility
Phylogenies and the Comparative Method
Body Size and Scaling of Limb Proportions in Primates
On the Scaling of Tooth Size in Mammals
A composite estimate of primate phylogeny
Origin and evolution of the genus Homo
The ontogeny of sexual dimorphism in the cranium of Bornean orang-utans (Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus)
Craniodental allometry and heterochrony in two howler monkeys
Comparative methods for studying primate adaptation and allometry
How big were early hominids
The ecology of oligocene African anthropoidea
Postcranial robusticity in Homo . I
Logarithmic transformation bias in allometry
Scaling relationships between craniofacial sexual dimorphism and body mass dimorphism in primates
Cranial variables as predictors of hominine body mass
Correlation of tooth size and body size in living hominoid primates, with a note on relative brain size in Aegyptopithecus and Proconsul
Sexual dimorphism in the baboon facial skeleton
The size of the orbit and of the eye in primates
Patterns of tooth size variability in the dentition of primates
The functional adaptations of primate molar teeth
Estimation of body weights from craniometric variables in baboons
How large were the australopithecines
Petite bodies of the “robust” australopithecines
New estimates of early hominid body size
Early primate brains
Behavioral ecological implications of early hominid body size
Brain, body and encephalization in early primates
| Unique citing works | 11 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,61 |
| Citation span | 2008 - 2018 (11) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 11 |