Multivariate analysis of early hominid pelvic bones.

Multivariate analyses of the acetabular and iliac parts of fossil hominid and extant hominoid pelvic bones show that (1) the best preserved fossil from Swartkrans (SK 3155) is more similar to the Sterkfontein pelvis (Sts 14) than either fossil is to any extant hominoid species; (2) of the living hominoids, all of the fossils are closer to modern Homo sapiens than to the apes; and (3) the robust and gracile forms of South African australopithecines are somewhat different from one another, the gracile form falling nearer to Homo sapiens, but neither form demonstrably closer to the pongids.