Original scientific paper
Is The Late Neandertal Mandibular Sample from Vindija Cave (Croatia) Biased?
Matthew J. Kesterke
James C. M. Ahern
Abstract
The late Neandertal sample from Vindija (Croatia) has been described as transitional between the earlier Central European
Neandertals from Krapina (Croatia) and modern humans. However, the morphological differences indicating
this transition may rather be the result of different sex and/or age compositions between the samples. This study tests the
hypothesis that the metric differences between the Krapina and Vindija mandibular samples are due to sample bias.
Mandibles are the focus of this paper because past studies have posited this region as particularly indicative of the
Vindija sample’s transitional nature. The results indicate that the metric differences between the Krapina and Vindija
mandibular samples are not due to sample bias. This conclusion is consistent with an earlier analysis of sample bias for
the Vindija supraorbital sample.
Keywords
Vindija; Neandertal; modern human origins; human evolution; bootstrap; resampling
Hrčak ID:
27386
URI
Publication date:
10.4.2007.
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