New fossil hominid calvaria from Indonesia--Sambungmacan 3.
A morphologically distinct partial calvaria of Homo cf. erectus from Java, Indonesia is described. The fossil hominid Sambungmacan 3 (Sm 3) was first discovered in 1977 from the banks of the Solo River near the village of Poloyo, Sambungmacan district, in central Java. It was later recovered in a New York City natural history establishment in 1999 and quickly returned to the Indonesian authorities. Examination of Sm 3 shows that the calvaria is well preserved with only portions of the cranial base missing. The most striking characteristics of Sm 3 include: the presence of a vertically rising forehead, more open occipital/nuchal and frontal angles, a more globular vault, and a cranial capacity within the Homo erectus range. Most notably absent in Sm 3 are a number of the classic characters attributed to Homo erectus, such as a strongly expressed angular torus and a continuous supratoral sulcus. The absence of such characters would normally place the calvaria outside the range of Homo erectus (sensu stricto), however, overall quantitative and qualitative morphological assessments of Sm 3 place it within the Homo erectus spectrum. The combination of the morphological characters in Sm 3 may be interpreted in several ways: 1.) the known cranial variation of H. erectus from Indonesia and China is extended; 2.) this calvaria shows evidence of evolutionary change within H. erectus; or 3.) more than one species of Homo existed in the (presumed) Middle Pleistocene of Java.)
Department of Cell Biology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York 10029, USA. smarquez@gc.cuny.edu
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Márquez
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Mowbray
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Sawyer
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Jacob
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Silvers
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002508:Cephalometry; D003392:Cranial Sinuses / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D003393:Cranial Sutures / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D005580:Fossils; D015186:Hominidae; D006801:Humans; D007214:Indonesia; D010163:Paleontology; D012886:Skull / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed