ANT332H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Paranthropus Robustus, Head Of Radius, Lesser Tubercle
Document Summary
All australopithecines are bipeds they have close similarities in post-cranial skeletons to humans. However, their mechanism of bipedalism is not the same as humans. Majority of questions on the lab test is to identify 1 similarity and 1 difference. Post cranial you don"t have to know the species, but know species designation for the crania. Humans have a smaller ratios, whereas apes have the intramemberal index (because they longer arms then their lower limbs). Arboreal quadruped has a n indec close to 1. Australopithecines fall in between apes and humans (upper limbs are longer than lower limbs, but not to the extend of apes). Large sexual dimorphism: huge difference of sizes of males and females in a. afarensis, falls about 65-75% (females are 65-75% of the male size) Relevance - probably not the same kind of upright walking as seen in humans. Because of reduction of lower limbs, they probably had shorter stride lengths, therefore requires more expenditure of energy.
