title: Relative femoral head size in early hominids.
abstract: Relative growth of the human femur head is studied by a logarithmic principal components method. Growth rates differ according to the population sampled and the other body dimensions being compared, and especially according to sex. The results do not support biomechanical assumptions of strongly positive allometry of the femur head, which have been used to argue that the australopithecine hip joint was not relatively small.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D005260:Female; D005270:Femur Head / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000254:growth & development; D000882:Haplorhini / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011323:Primates / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D012737:Sex Factors