Original scientific paper

Neandertal Pelvic Remains from Krapina: Peculiar or Primitive?

KAREN R. ROSENBERG ; Department of Anthropology, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA

Abstract

Although fragmentary, the rich collection of fossil pelvic remains from
the Neandertal site of Krapina in Croatia shows much of the morphology long considered to be characteristic of Neandertals from elsewhere in Europe and the Levant. This includes a long superior pubic ramus that is vertically thin in cross-section and an anteriorly positioned iliac pillar. The condition of the fossil material precludes evaluation of a further Neandertal characteristic, namely a broad pelvis. Comparison of the Krapina and other Neandertal fossils with earlier material from Europe, Asia and Africa demonstrates that the long pubis and broad pelvis are primitive for hominids and probably not part of a single adaptive or functional morphological complex with the vertically thin ramus or the anteriorly positioned iliac pillar. Rather than considering Neandertals to be »peculiar« or derived in
their elongated pubic morphology, we see that Neandertals exhibit the
long-standing primitive condition for hominids. It is modern human males who deviate from this longstanding pattern in their short pubis and it is this unusual, derived condition that requires explanation.

Keywords

Krapina; pelvis; pubi

Hrčak ID:

74684

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/74684

Publication date:

31.8.2007.

Visits: 1.729 *