Re: Airsacs (Re: Ealine Morgan

Marc Verhaegen <m_verhaegen@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

My little fruitcake, afarensis had curved phalanges, laryngeal airsacs,
knuckle-walking features, gorilla-like molar microwear etc.etc., it had
nothing uniquely human: no large brain, no very long legs, no external nose,
nothing.

Nothing?
Well, let's see, with regard to the postcranium afarensis shares the
following characters with Homo:
Relatively short toes; proximal phalanges of the foot with dorsally
oriented proximal articular surfaces; convergent hallux; metatarsals
II-V with heads expanded superiorly; powerfully built metatarsal V
with large tuberosity; metatarsal I with a robust and triangular
diaphysis and an expanded head; a stout, anteroposteriorly expanded
midtarsal region with a strong transverse and longitudinal arch,
calcaneus with a massive body and deep dorsoplantar dimension, a
tuberosity that is ovoid in cross-section, and a horizontally oriented
sustentacular shelf; distal tibia with an articular surface
perpendicular to the shaft axis; straight-shafted tibia; distal femur
with a high bicondylar angle, an elliptical lateral condyle, and a
deep patellar groove with a high lateral lip; femoral neck with a
humanlike distribution of cortical and spongy bone; pelvis with
mediolaterally expanded, superoinferiorly shortened, and anteriorly
rotated iliac blades, robust anterior iliac spines, a distinct sciatic
notch, a distinct iliopsoas groove, a rugose and large area for
sacrotuberous ligament, a retroflexed auricular surface with extensive
retroauriclar area, a robust posterior superior iliac spine, a sigmoid
curvature of the iliac crest, dorsoventrally thickened pubic
symphysis, retroflexed hamstring tuberosity, and a shortened ischial
shank; lumbar lordosis and sacral retroflexion; sacral alae expanded
laterally; sacroiliac and hip joints closely approximated;
univertebral articular pattern for the first rib; relatively small
forelimbs; proximal humerus with an open and shallow bicipital groove;
distal humerus with a rounded lateral wall of the olecranon fossa, a
gracile lateral epicondyle, a moderate-sized and cranially facing
medial epicondyle, and a moderate development of the supracondylar
ridge; radiocarpal joint perpendicular to the shaft axis; capitate
with proximodistally shortened axis, a single and elongated facet for
metacarpal II, and a shallow excavation for metacarpal III
articulation; metacarpals II-V relatively short without dorsal
transverse ridges on the heads; and hand phalanges relatively short.

All primitive for hominids (HPG) or even hominoids AFAICS: see the
conclusion of my "Apiths = Afr.ape ancestors?" paper in Hum.Evol.
All these features fit perfectly in the aquarboreal ape hypothesis.

Again: none of the uniquely Homo features is seen in apiths: no very large
brain, no external nose, no very long legs.

Of course not, because those characters are autapomorphies, i.e.
uniquely derived for Homo. And autapomorphies carry no phylogenetic
signal.
However, all the characters I listed above are synapomorphies, i.e.
shared derived characters. And these do carry phylogenetic signal.
They clearly put Australopithecus and Homo in a single clade to the
exclusion of the African apes.
Once again your lack of phylogentic skills shows that you're not
qualified to do paleontological work.

And to this you can add the whole suite of craniodental characters
from the analysis of Strait and Grine, e.g. relatively horizontal
orientation of the nuchal plane, more coronal orientation of the
petrous bone, anterior position of the foramen magnum, more vertical
orientation of the mandibular symphysis, absent or slight Eustachian
process of the tympanic, canine reduction, etc., etc.

Idem: see conclusion of my paper.

Dentition: Nearly all early apes were thick-enameled, durophagous &
presumably even tool-using (hard foods: shells, nuts...).
Locomotion: Early apes were typically vertical movers: climbing arms
overhead, wading & floating vertically in forest swamps.

You keep making the idiotic supposition that Afr.apelike = primitive.

There's nothing idiotic about that. Character polarization using
outgroup comparison is a perfectly logical procedure, and it's a lot
better than your preconceived notion of what's primitive and your
arbitrairy means of choosing taxa to confirm your position.
Once again your lack of phylogenetic skills shows you're not qualified
to do paleontological work.

Gerrit
.

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