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  • Species status of Kenyanthropus platyops and Australopithecus deyiremeda

    From Primum Sapienti@invalide@invalid.invalid to sci.anthropology.paleo on Sun Dec 8 20:26:59 2024
    From Newsgroup: sci.anthropology.paleo


    https://sciencepress.mnhn.fr/sites/default/files/articles/pdf/comptes-rendus-palevol2024v23a29.pdf
    Mid-Pliocene hominin diversity revisited


    Abstract
    Geometric morphometric analyses are used to
    examine the maxillary shape of the
    Kenyanthropus platyops Leakey, Spoor, Brown,
    Gathogo, Kiarie, Leakey & McDougall, 2001
    holotype KNM-WT 40000 and the Australopithecus
    deyiremeda Haile-Selassie, Gilbert, Melillo,
    Ryan, Alene, Deino, Levin, Scott & Saylor,
    2015 holotype BRT-VP-3/1, expanding on the
    work of Spoor et al. (2010, 2016) by using
    more accurate data and a larger comparative
    sample. The main objective is to assess
    whether these two specimens differ from the
    contemporary taxon Australopithecus afarensis
    Johanson, White & Coppens, 1978 and more
    broadly from species of Australopithecus
    Dart, 1925 and Paranthropus Broom, 1938,
    as well as from each other. Five
    two-dimensional landmarks recorded on
    virtual models obtained from computed
    tomography scans quantify key features of
    the maxilla used in the differential
    diagnoses of K. platyops and A. deyiremeda.
    Principal component analyses were performed
    to describe shape differences, and the
    magnitudes of these differences and their
    statistical significance were assessed using
    Procrustes and Mahalanobis distances,
    respectively. The maxillary shapes of both
    KNM-WT 40000 and BRT-VP-3/1 are significantly
    different from A. afarensis, the former more
    so than the latter, and they differ from A.
    afarensis in dissimilar ways. Where
    KNM-WT 40000 has a more anterosuperiorly
    positioned zygomatic process with a longer,
    more orthognathic, and transversely flat
    subnasal clivus than A. afarensis, the shape
    difference of BRT-VP-3/1 is best described
    as a posterior shift (retraction) of the
    entire dental arcade. The findings of this
    study quantitatively support the species
    status of K. platyops and A. deyiremeda, and
    corroborate the notion that hominin diversity
    extended well into the mid-Pliocene of
    eastern Africa.


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