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A technique for establishing the identity of ‘isolated’ fossil hominin limb bones

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 1998

BERNARD WOOD
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, USA
LESLIE AIELLO
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University College London, UK
CHRISTOPHER WOOD
Affiliation:
The Library, University of Reading, UK
CATHY KEY
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University College London, UK
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Abstract

Associated skeletons, which are specimens preserving more than one body part from the same individual, are especially important for taxonomic and functional analyses. This study concentrates on the subset of associated skeletons which preserve the reciprocal surfaces of a joint. It uses laser scanning to explore whether the shapes of the reciprocal surfaces of a joint of an individual are significantly more congruent than the surfaces of randomly-matched pairings taken from the same species. Laser scanning was used to capture the distal articular surface of the left tibia of OH35 and the trochlear articular surface of the talus of OH8, both from Bed I, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. The degree of congruency between those articular surfaces was tested against the congruency of the talocrural joint of AL 288-1 (Australopithecus afarensis), and the congruency of both associated and randomly-matched talocrural joints of modern humans, chimpanzees and gorillas. The results suggest that OH35 and OH8 do not come from the same individual and may not come from the same species. Although this analysis leaves open the taxonomic affinity of OH35, it demonstrates the potential of laser scanning for capturing 3D data in palaeoanthropology. It also demonstrates the potential for using the relative congruency of reciprocal joint surfaces as a test of the likelihood that isolated limb bones are components of a single individual.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1998

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