TY - JOUR
T1 - Revisiting mandibular symphyseal shape in juvenile early hominins and modern humans using a deformation-based approach
AU - Zimmer, Veronika A.
AU - Oettlé, Anna
AU - Hoffmannc, Jakobus
AU - Thackeray, John Francis
AU - Zipfel, Bernhard
AU - Braga, José
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Commission des Fouilles), the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and the “AESOP plus” consortium of Erasmus Mundus programme (Action 2 of the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency of the European Union). We thank the curators of the Institute of Anatomy in Strasbourg (France), the Pretoria Bone Collection (University of Pretoria, South Africa) and the Dart collection (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa) for giving us access to mandibles representing modern human individuals. We also thank the Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand and the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (NECSA) for access to the fossil specimens and help with micro-CT scans.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Commission des Fouilles), the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and the “AESOP plus” consortium of Erasmus Mundus programme (Action 2 of the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency of the European Union).
Publisher Copyright:
© VERONIKA A. ZIMMER ET AL., 2023.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - The juvenile mandible is important in the investigation of ontogenetic and evolutionary changes among early hominins. We revisit the mandibular symphysis in juvenile specimens of Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus with two main contributions. First, we employ, for the first time, methods of computational anatomy to model complex symphyseal shape differences. Second, we present new fossil evidence from Kromdraai to improve our knowledge of symphyseal morphology. We describe differences between shapes by landmark-free diffeomorphism needed to align them. We assess which features of the mandibular symphysis best discriminate the juvenile symphysis in these fossil species, relative to the intraspecific variation observed among modern humans. Our approach eliminates potential methodological inconsistencies with traditional approaches (i.e., the need for homologous anatomical landmarks, assumption of linearity). By enabling detailed comparisons of complex shapes in juvenile mandibles, our proposed approach offers new perspectives for more detailed comparisons among Australopithecus, Paranthropus and early Homo.
AB - The juvenile mandible is important in the investigation of ontogenetic and evolutionary changes among early hominins. We revisit the mandibular symphysis in juvenile specimens of Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus with two main contributions. First, we employ, for the first time, methods of computational anatomy to model complex symphyseal shape differences. Second, we present new fossil evidence from Kromdraai to improve our knowledge of symphyseal morphology. We describe differences between shapes by landmark-free diffeomorphism needed to align them. We assess which features of the mandibular symphysis best discriminate the juvenile symphysis in these fossil species, relative to the intraspecific variation observed among modern humans. Our approach eliminates potential methodological inconsistencies with traditional approaches (i.e., the need for homologous anatomical landmarks, assumption of linearity). By enabling detailed comparisons of complex shapes in juvenile mandibles, our proposed approach offers new perspectives for more detailed comparisons among Australopithecus, Paranthropus and early Homo.
KW - Australopithecus africanus
KW - Paranthropus robustus
KW - early hominins
KW - juvenile mandibles
KW - statistical shape analysis
KW - symphyseal morphology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85168943362&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1163/14219980-bja10014
DO - 10.1163/14219980-bja10014
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85168943362
SN - 0015-5713
VL - 443
JO - Folia Primatologica
JF - Folia Primatologica
IS - 7109
ER -