Evolution of the human shoulder: Some possible pathways

CHARLES ERNEST OXNARD

46 citations0/0 files storedAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology

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Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology Evolution and Paleontology Studies Morphological variations and asymmetry

Abstract

Abstract Osteometric data, apparently reflecting functional parameters of the shoulder in the Anthropoidea, have been examined by a combination of multivariate techniques in an attempt to define minimum pathways possibly followed in the evolution of the human shoulder. Principal components analysis has been used to gauge size‐related shape effects. The combination of D2 and canonical analysis has suggested that the shoulder in man is unlikely to have evolved (a) from one similar to that of any extant monkey whether arboreal or terrestrial, (b) from one similar to that of any terrestrial ape (like present‐day Pan and Gorilla), or (c) from one similar to that of a highly specialised ricochetal armswinging ape (such as present day Hylobates and Symphalangus). The analyses suggest positively that the minimum evolutionary pathway may well have been from the shoulder of a totally arboreal ape, presumably genetically related to Pan and Gorilla, but functionally similar to that evolved in parallel in the highly arboreal orang‐utan, Pongo. Information from fragmentary fossils (the scapula from Sterkfontein and the clavicle from Olduvai) supports these conclusions.

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References

1967Knuckle‐walking and the evolution of hominoid hands 1968Human Evolution: An Introduction to Man's Adaptations.1967The functional morphology of the primate shoulder as revealed by comparative anatomical, osteometric and discriminant function techniques 1979Human Evolution: An Introduction to Man's Adaptations 1968A note on the fragmentary sterkfontein scapula

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1974The behaviour and ecology of wild orang-utans (Pongo pygmaeus)2008Locomotion and posture from the common hominoid ancestor to fully modern hominins, with special reference to the last common panin/hominin ancestor 1969Knuckle-Walking and the Problem of Human Origins 2017New fossil remains of Homo naledi from the Lesedi Chamber, South Africa 1980Evolutionary Implications of Pliocene Hominid Footprints 1979Skeletal differentiation of Macaca fascicularis and Macaca nemestrina in relation to arboreal and terrestrial quadrupedalism 1980An electromyographic study of the pectoralis major in Atelines and Hylobates , with special reference to the Evolution of a pars clavicularis 1979

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