Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A G Thorne.
An ESR dating study on teeth collected from layers 3, 6/7 and 10 at Locality 1, Zhoukoudian provides results that are in general agreement with an earlier multi-dating study and confirm an age range of 300-550 ka for the Homo erectus remains in the Peking Man Cave. Uncertainties due to U-uptake and the external gamma dose rates do not allow very precise age estimates for the respective layers.
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This report concerns a congenital meningocoele in a young adult Aboriginal female from north-western New South Wales, Australia. The fact that this individual reached adulthood throws new light on the attitude of these nomadic people towards such conditions. Evidence of this kind may prompt also a re-evaluation by prehistorians and anthropologists of the popularly held belief that all such malformations were automatically eliminated by infanticide. The discovery of this form of pathology helps provide new information not only on past cultural attitudes towards disease, but its frequency and geographical incidence, and adds to our knowledge concerning the range of pathological conditions suffered by prehistoric societies worldwide.
A reconstruction of the Indonesian male Homo erectus specimen Sangiran 17 reveals a suite of features that suggests regional morphological continuity in Australasia during the middle and late Pleistocene. Characteristics reflecting a morphological clade are established through a comparison with the males from Kow Swamp, the late Pleistocene Australian site with the largest number of hominid specimens. It is argued that the "center and edge" hypothesis could account for the initial appearance of regional variation, and that a dynamic model of geneflow and opposing selection provides the mechanism that maintained a long-standing dynamic clinal equilibrium in this area.
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Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.