Abstract
AN estimation of the body height of two robust australopithecines (Sk 82 and Sk 97) is attempted here on the basis of a ratio between femoral head diameter and body height in modern Homo sapiens. Coon, using the fibula and tibia from the “Zinjanthropus” living floor at Olduvai, has estimated1 three different heights for this creature or creatures: 144.5 cm (4 feet 8 inches; 136 cm (4 feet 6 inches); and 152.4 cm (5 feet). Lovejoy and Heiple, using specimens from Sterk-fontein (STS 14, STS 34 and TM 1513), have reconstructed2 a height for the gracile australopithecines at 106.7 cm–109.2 cm (3 feet 6 inches–3 feet 7 inches). An estimation has never been made, however, for the height of an undisputed robust australopithecine.
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References
Coon, C. S., The Origin of Races, 285, 294 (Knopf, New York, 1969).
Lovejoy, C. O., and Heiple, K. G., Amer. J. Phys. Anthrop., 32, 33 (1970).
LeGros Clark, W. E., The Fossil Evidence for Human Evolution, 157 (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1964).
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BURNS, P. New Determination of Australopithecine Height. Nature 232, 350 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1038/232350a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/232350a0
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