ANTH 3512 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Artificial Cranial Deformation, Pelvic Inlet, Radiometric Dating
Document Summary
Morphology: paleospecies- fossil organisms whose variation does not exceed that of living species, assessing within species variation. Variation due to physical plasticity: variation due to bone plasticity. Variation in long bone cross section area: sexual dimorphism: Skull: narrow subpubic angle, heart-shaped pelvic inlet, narrow sciatic notch, tall iliac blades, projecting coccyx and, wide-subpubic angle, round pelvic inlet, wide sciatic notch, flaring iliac blades, non-projecting coccyx and ischial spires ischial spires. Male: robust, strong muscle attachments, large mastoid process, developed suborbital ridge, square mental eminence. Female: gracile, slight muscle attachments, small mastoid process, no suborbital ridge, pointed mental eminence. How old is it?- dating/geology: relative dating techniques. Stratum form is successive layers, making the lowest strata older than higher strata. Fossils are contemporaries if they are within the same strata. Geological shifts and animal activity can alter the stratigraphic sequence: biostratigraphy. Sites can be assigned approximate age based on the similarity of animal remains to those from dated sites.
