RT Journal Article
T1 Early hominin auditory ossicles from South Africa
A1 Quama, Rolf M.
A1 Ruiterd, , Darryl J. de
A1 Masali, Melchiorre
A1 Arsuaga Ferreras, Juan Luis
A1 Martínez Mendizábal, Ignacio
A1 Moggi Cecchii, Jacopo
AB The middle ear ossicles are only rarely preserved in fossil hominins. Here, we report the discovery of a complete ossicular chain (malleus, incus, and stapes) of Paranthropus robustus as well as additional ear ossicles from Australopithecus africanus. The malleus in both early hominin taxa is clearly human-like in the proportions of the manubrium and corpus, whereas the incus and stapes resemble African and Asian great apes more closely. A deep phylogenetic origin is proposed for the derived malleus morphology, and this may represent one of the earliest human-like features to appear in the fossil record. The anatomical differences found in the early hominin incus and stapes, along with other aspects of the outer, middle, and inner ear, are consistent with the suggestion of different auditory capacities in these early hominin taxa compared with modern humans.
PB National Academy of Sciences
SN 0027-8424
YR 2013
FD 2013-05-28
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/34339
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/34339
LA eng
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
NO Leakey Foundation
NO Ray A. Rothrock ’77 Fellowship at Texas A&M University
DS Docta Complutense
RD 28 abr 2024