Luboga S A, Wood B A
Department of Anatomy, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
Am J Phys Anthropol. 1990 Jan;81(1):67-76. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.1330810108.
The location of the foramen magnum, with respect to the longitudinal axis of the cranium, and its orientation with respect to the Frankfurt Horizontal, have been studied in a total of 328 modern human and Pan crania. The samples were chosen in order to examine the effect of overall size difference on foramen magnum disposition. Foramen position (expressed as three indices) and inclination are relatively invariant among the modern human samples, but the foramen magnum is consistently, and statistically significantly, more anteriorly located in Pan paniscus than in Pan troglodytes. Sexual dimorphism is virtually non-existent. There is an apparent allometric effect on foramen position, but not on inclination, so that larger crania in the modern human and Pan paniscus samples tend to have more posteriorly situated foramina. The disposition of the foramen is unrelated to cranial base angle or facial prognathism, except that in Pan paniscus its relative anterior location is linked with the more flexed cranial base in that species. These results provide a comparative context for the examination of differences in foramen magnum disposition in fossil hominids. Differences in foramen magnum position and orientation between KNM-ER 1813 and A. africanus are most unlikely to be due to within-taxon variability.
在总共328个现代人类和潘属颅骨中，研究了枕骨大孔相对于颅纵轴的位置及其相对于法兰克福平面的方向。选择这些样本是为了检验整体大小差异对枕骨大孔位置的影响。在现代人类样本中，枕骨大孔位置（用三个指数表示）和倾斜度相对不变，但倭黑猩猩的枕骨大孔始终比黑猩猩的更靠前，且在统计学上有显著差异。几乎不存在性别二态性。枕骨大孔位置存在明显的异速生长效应，但倾斜度不存在，因此现代人类和倭黑猩猩样本中较大的颅骨往往有更靠后的枕骨大孔。枕骨大孔的位置与颅底角或面部前突无关，不过在倭黑猩猩中，其相对靠前的位置与该物种中更弯曲的颅底有关。这些结果为研究化石原始人类枕骨大孔位置差异提供了一个比较背景。KNM - ER 1813和南方古猿之间枕骨大孔位置和方向的差异极不可能是由于类群内的变异性。
