Premium
Analysis of the probability of multiple taxa in a combined sample of swartkrans and kromdraai dental material
Author(s) -
Fuller Kathleen
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1096-8644(199611)101:3<429::aid-ajpa9>3.0.co;2-t
Subject(s) - sample (material) , taxon , geography , dentistry , medicine , geology , paleontology , physics , thermodynamics
It has been argued (Grine, [1988] Evolutionary History of the “Robust” Australopithecines [New York. Aldine de Gruyter], pp. 223–243) that the australopithecine material from Swartkrans and Kromdraai represents distinct species. In an attempt to test the validity of separate taxa at Swartkrans and Kromdraai, Cope's (Cope [1989] Systematic Variation in Cercopithecus Dental Samples [Austin: University of Texas]) method of analysis was adapted and utilized. This procedure includes an analysis of the coefficients of variation (CVs) of the individual posterior teeth (buccal‐lingual breadth) of a combined fossil sample compared with the CVs of several known single taxon reference groups. The Cope and Lacy (Cope and Lacy [1992] Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 89 :359–378) simulation technique was also employed in the analysis. Based on these analyses, there is no justification for a taxonomic separation between the australopithecine material from Swartkrans and Kromdraai. Therefore, the assertion that the Swartkrans and Kromdraai material represent two distinct species is not indicated by the available dental metric evidence. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.