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Full-Text Articles in Anthropology
Reconstructing Landscape Use Patterns Using Strontium Isotope Ratios, Marian I. Hamilton
Reconstructing Landscape Use Patterns Using Strontium Isotope Ratios, Marian I. Hamilton
Anthropology ETDs
This dissertation uses modern habitats and fauna to model the variability and predictive power of strontium isotope ratios in identifying dispersal patterns in primates and habitat preference in primate and non-primate fauna. It concludes that there are significant isotopic differences between gallery forest and xeric grassland habitats in the same area and that these differences are reflected in fauna with habitat preferences for one or the other. It also identifies the most reliable methodological approaches for identifying the philopatric and dispersing sex in primate communities. Finally, it applies this methodological recommendation to strontium isotope data from South African hominins, concluding …
Taxonomic Implications Of Basicranial Variation In Australopithecus Africanus, Timothy R. Petersen
Taxonomic Implications Of Basicranial Variation In Australopithecus Africanus, Timothy R. Petersen
Anthropology ETDs
Although it was discovered 85 years ago, Australopithecus africanus remains a source of contention among paleoanthropologists. Uncertainty about the fossils taxonomic unity has resulted in controversy about their place in hominin phylogeny. This work addresses their taxonomy through application of three-dimensional morphometrics followed by analysis of their patterns of variation in traditional morphological characters. This sequential approach lends more support to the conclusions than would either technique alone. The cranial base was selected as the focus of the analyses because it preserves well and is likely to capture taxonomically-important variation. This inference is supported by the finding herein that the …