title: Morphological affinities of the Sal'a 1 frontal bone.
abstract: The human frontal bone from Sal'a, Slovak Republic, has previously entered into discussions of the morphological patterns of Central European Neandertals and the origins of early modern humans in that region. A morphological reassessment of its supraorbital region and a morphometric analysis of its overall proportions indicate that it falls well within expected ranges of variation of Late Pleistocene Neandertals and is separate from European earlier Upper Paleolithic early modern human crania. It is similar to the Qafzeh-Skhul sample in some metrical and supraorbital robusticity measures, but it contrasts with them in mid-sagittal curvature and supraorbital torus morphology. In the context of its probable oxygen isotope stage 5 age based on inferred biostratigraphic associations, it should not be employed directly for arguments relating to the emergence of modern humans in Central Europe.
authors.affiliation: Ustav biologie obratlovců, Akademie ved CR, Kvetná 8, 603 65, Brno, Czech Republic. sladekv@yahoo.fr
authors.forename: Vladimír
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sládek
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Trinkaus
authors.forename: Alena
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sefcáková
authors.forename: Rudolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Halouzka
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005580:Fossils; D005624:Frontal Bone / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D015186:Hominidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D006801:Humans; D018154:Slovakia