A MULTI-CAUSAL FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF HOMINID HIP MORPHOLOGY
Year:
2002
School:
STANFORD UNIVERSITY
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Abstract:
The skeletal elements of the hip have factored prominently in discussions of the behaviors, life histories, and evolutionary histories of hominids from all time periods. Two particularly intriguing questions are what behavioral and life history differences, if any, existed between Neandertals and modern humans that could explain the demise of the Neandertals, and how rapidly and through what stages did bipedal gait evolve in australopiths? Hip form is functionally constrained by the mechanics of walking and childbirth, and variation between human populations in pelvic width and leg to trunk proportions is related to climate. Therefore, only a multi-causal model that simultaneously considers locomotor, obstetrical, and climatic constraints will be able to explain hominid hip morphology. This dissertation takes steps toward such a model through comprehensive 3-D landmark analyses of hip size and shape that are interpreted within a functional framework. For comparison with fossil hominids, data were collected on matched sets of innominates, sacra, and femora -- the skeletal elements of the hip -- from a globally distributed sample of recent human skeletons
