Rich Travs
Mon, Jul-21-03, 06:12
This is in the current Science News (subscription required).
Reno, P.L., et al. In press. Sexual dimorphism in
Australopithecus afarensis was similar to that of modern
humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
From the SN article:
In a line of human ancestors that lived more than 3 million
years ago, adult males were only around 15 percent larger
than adult females, a new study finds. Such a moderate sex
difference in Australopithecus afarensis suggests that males
in the ancient species formed coalitions with each other and
often established monogamous relationships with females just
as do modern human males and those of other species with
nearly equal-size sexes...
Prior research indicated that A. afarensis males were
substantially larger than females, as is the case for male
gorillas and orangutans, which can be 50 percent larger than
females. ...
The size gap between genders closed for Lucy's kind when
Reno's team used new statistical methods to estimate body
proportions and identify sexes using fossils from more than
20 A. afarensis individuals. Skeletal analyses of people,
chimpanzees, and gorillas indicated that the modest size
difference between A. afarensis sexes matched that between
the human sexes ...
The abstract is SUPPOSED to be at
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1133180100
but it ain't.
Reno, P.L., et al. In press. Sexual dimorphism in
Australopithecus afarensis was similar to that of modern
humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
From the SN article:
In a line of human ancestors that lived more than 3 million
years ago, adult males were only around 15 percent larger
than adult females, a new study finds. Such a moderate sex
difference in Australopithecus afarensis suggests that males
in the ancient species formed coalitions with each other and
often established monogamous relationships with females just
as do modern human males and those of other species with
nearly equal-size sexes...
Prior research indicated that A. afarensis males were
substantially larger than females, as is the case for male
gorillas and orangutans, which can be 50 percent larger than
females. ...
The size gap between genders closed for Lucy's kind when
Reno's team used new statistical methods to estimate body
proportions and identify sexes using fossils from more than
20 A. afarensis individuals. Skeletal analyses of people,
chimpanzees, and gorillas indicated that the modest size
difference between A. afarensis sexes matched that between
the human sexes ...
The abstract is SUPPOSED to be at
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1133180100
but it ain't.