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UT Austin Anthropologists Confirm Link Between Cranial Anatomy and Two-Legged Walking

AUSTIN, Texas — Anthropology researchers from The University of Texas at Austin have confirmed a direct link between upright two-legged (bipedal) walking and the position of the foramen magnum, a hole in the base of the skull that transmits the spinal cord.

The study, published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Human Evolution, confirms a controversial finding made by anatomist Raymond Dart, who discovered the first known two-legged walking (bipedal) human ancestor, Australopithecus africanus. Since Dart’s discovery in 1925, physical anthropologists have continued to debate whether this feature of the cranial base can serve as a direct link to bipedal fossil species. (more…)

‘Ancient Hominid Males Stayed Home While Females Roamed’

By Guest PostJune 7, 2011Scienceantelope, australopithecus africanus, baboons, basalt, bipedal hominid species, bipedalism, darryl de ruiter, early hominids, ethiopian fossil, female teeth, fossilized teeth, gadabout gals, geological substrates, Germany, granite, high tech analysis, hominid family tree, hyraxes, julia lee thorp, laser ablation, leipzig, local geology, lucy, male hominid teeth, mammal teeth, matt sponheimer, max plank institute for evolutionary anthropology, paranthropus boisei, paranthropus robustus, quartzite, sandi copeland, sandstone, South Africa, south african savannah, sterkfontein and swartkans cave systems, strontium isotope, strontium isotope signatures, university of colorado boulder

The males of two bipedal hominid species that roamed the South African savannah more than a million years ago were stay-at-home kind of guys when compared to the gadabout gals, says a new high-tech study led by the University of Colorado Boulder.

The team, which studied teeth from a group of extinct Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus individuals from two adjacent cave systems in South Africa, found more than half of the female teeth were from outside the local area, said CU-Boulder adjunct professor and lead study author Sandi Copeland. In contrast, only about 10 percent of the male hominid teeth were from elsewhere, suggesting they likely grew up and died in the same area. (more…)

Tag Archives: australopithecus africanus

UT Austin Anthropologists Confirm Link Between Cranial Anatomy and Two-Legged Walking

‘Ancient Hominid Males Stayed Home While Females Roamed’