Taxonomic and functional implications of mandibular scaling in early hominins

Bernard A. Wood · Leslie C. Aiello

50 citations0/0 files storedAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology

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Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology Evolution and Paleontology Studies Primate Behavior and Ecology

Abstract

Body mass estimates for fossil hominin taxa can be obtained from suitable postcranial and cranial variables. However, the nature of the taphonomic processes that winnow the mammalian fossil record are such that these data are usually only available for the minority of the specimens that comprise the hypodigm of a species. This study has investigated the link between species mean body mass and the height and width of the mandibular corpus in a core sample of 23 species of extant simians. The slopes of the least-squares regressions for the whole sample and for the hominoid subset are similar. However, the intercepts differ so that for a given body mass, a hominoid will generally have a smaller mandible than a generalized simian. The same mandibular measurements were taken on 75 early hominin mandibles assigned to eight species groups. When mandibular corpus height- and width-derived estimates of body mass for the fossil taxa were compared with available postcranial and cranial-derived body mass estimates, the eight early hominin species sort into four groups. The first, which includes A. afarensis and A. africanus, has mandibles which follow a "generalized simian" scaling relationship. The second group, which comprises the two "robust" australopithecine species, P. boisei and P. robustus, has mandibles which scale with body mass as if they are "super-simians," for they have substantially larger mandibles than a simian with the same body mass. The two "early Homo" species, H. habilis sensu stricto and H. rudolfensis, make up the third group. It has mandibular scaling relationships that are intermediate between that of the comparative simian sample and that of the hominoid subsample. The last of the four groups comprises H. ergaster and H. erectus; their mandibles scale with body mass as if they were hominoids, so that of the four groups they have the smallest mandibles per unit body mass. These results are related to comparable information about relative tooth size. Their relevance for attempts to interpret the dietary adaptations of early hominins are explored.

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References

2017Evolutionary History of the Robust Australopithecines 1997Body mass and encephalization in Pleistocene Homo 1975The functional adaptations of primate molar teeth 1997Paleoclimate and evolution, with emphasis on human origins 1992Body size and proportions in early hominids 1976Earliest man and environments in the lake rudolf basin 1992Origin and evolution of the genus Homo 1979The functional significance of primate mandibular form

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2011Evolution in the Genus Homo 2007The Evolution of Zinjanthropus boisei 2011Did early Homo migrate “out of” or “in to” Africa?2009Where Does the Genus Homo Begin, and How Would We Know?2016Testing Dietary Hypotheses of East African Hominines Using Buccal Dental Microwear Data

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