Durband Arthur C
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409-1012, USA.
Homo. 2008;59(4):261-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jchb.2008.06.001. Epub 2008 Jul 31.
Recently, Curnoe (2007) tested the predictions of competing models of modern human origins using three crania from Australia: Kow Swamp 1 and 5 and Keilor. The Kow Swamp specimens have long been suspected of having been altered through artificial deformation of the skull. Though Curnoe (2007) provided assurances that no evidence of deformation is present in those specimens, the current study retests the hypothesis that these Australian specimens are artificially deformed. The Australian crania are compared to known deformed individuals from New Britian through canonical variates analysis, and the resulting Mahalanobis distances are examined for statistical significance with random expectation statistics. The results show that Kow Swamp 1 and 5 have strong shape similarities to known deformed individuals, and both crania are very different in shape from Keilor. Keilor is statistically significantly different in shape from both Kow Swamp specimens and all of the known deformed specimens. These findings cast doubt on Curnoe's (2007) conclusions of a shared Australian cranial morphology as well as the retention of an archaic suite of morphologies in the Australians.
最近，库尔诺（2007年）利用来自澳大利亚的三个颅骨：科乌沼泽1号、5号和基勒颅骨，对现代人类起源的竞争模型预测进行了测试。长期以来，人们一直怀疑科乌沼泽的标本因颅骨人工变形而有所改变。尽管库尔诺（2007年）保证这些标本中没有变形的证据，但本研究重新检验了这些澳大利亚标本是人工变形的这一假设。通过典型变量分析，将澳大利亚颅骨与来自新不列颠的已知变形个体进行比较，并使用随机期望统计检验所得马氏距离的统计显著性。结果表明，科乌沼泽1号和5号与已知变形个体在形状上有很强的相似性，并且这两个颅骨在形状上与基勒颅骨有很大差异。基勒颅骨在形状上与科乌沼泽的两个标本以及所有已知变形标本在统计学上有显著差异。这些发现对库尔诺（2007年）关于澳大利亚颅骨形态共享以及澳大利亚人保留古老形态组合的结论提出了质疑。
