title: Testing for size and allometric differences in fossil hominin body mass estimation.
abstract: Body size reconstructions of fossil hominins allow us to infer many things about their evolution and lifestyle, including diet, metabolic requirements, locomotion, and brain/body size relationships. The importance of these implications compels anthropologists to attempt body mass estimation from fragmentary fossil hominin specimens. Most calculations require a known "calibration" sample usually composed of modern humans or other extant apes. Caution must be taken in these analyses, as estimates are sensitive to overall size and allometric differences between the fossil hominin and the reference sample.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. uhl1@illinois.edu
authors.forename: Natalie M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Uhl
authors.forename: Christopher W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Rainwater
authors.forename: Lyle W
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Konigsberg
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000885:Anthropology, Physical / Q000379:methods*; D000886:Anthropometry / Q000379:methods*; D049628:Body Size; D002138:Calibration; D005260:Female; D005269:Femur / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D005580:Fossils; D015186:Hominidae; D006801:Humans; D006811:Humerus / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D008297:Male; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results