TY - JOUR
T1 - The enigma of the Sangiran 4 palate revisited
AU - Durband, Arthur C.
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2011 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2008/5/27
Y1 - 2008/5/27
N2 - The Sangiran 4 palate has been controversial since its discovery in the 1930s because it retains a number of more primitive morphologies such as projecting canines and precanine diastemata. These characters have led some workers to question the hominid status of the palate, suggesting that it is both too large and too primitive to belong to the same individual as the Sangiran 4 cranial fragments. The palate has instead been diagnosed as a new species of Pongo. The present study re-evaluates this controversy through the analysis of new metric data and comparisons with more recently published fossil discoveries. This analysis shows that the Sangiran 4 palate is not unique, and shares several of these putative pongid traits with other Javan hominid fossils as well as recently described hominid specimens from Dmanisi, Georgia. These results suggest that the evolution of the earliest Asians was more complex than has previously been appreciated.
AB - The Sangiran 4 palate has been controversial since its discovery in the 1930s because it retains a number of more primitive morphologies such as projecting canines and precanine diastemata. These characters have led some workers to question the hominid status of the palate, suggesting that it is both too large and too primitive to belong to the same individual as the Sangiran 4 cranial fragments. The palate has instead been diagnosed as a new species of Pongo. The present study re-evaluates this controversy through the analysis of new metric data and comparisons with more recently published fossil discoveries. This analysis shows that the Sangiran 4 palate is not unique, and shares several of these putative pongid traits with other Javan hominid fossils as well as recently described hominid specimens from Dmanisi, Georgia. These results suggest that the evolution of the earliest Asians was more complex than has previously been appreciated.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=42249098693&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jchb.2006.10.007
DO - 10.1016/j.jchb.2006.10.007
M3 - Article
C2 - 18396286
AN - SCOPUS:42249098693
VL - 59
SP - 111
EP - 122
JO - HOMO- Journal of Comparative Human Biology
JF - HOMO- Journal of Comparative Human Biology
SN - 0018-442X
IS - 2
ER -