A reconsideration of the Fontéchevade fossils

✍ Scribed by Erik Trinkaus

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1973
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 863 KB
• Volume: 39
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0002-9483
• DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.1330390105

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Reconstructions of the Fontéchevade fossils normally depict them as adults without neandertaloid brow ridges. A reconsideration of the size of the frontal sinus, the interorbital breadth, and the frontal squamous thickness of the gracile Fontéchevade I fragment suggests that it could represent either an adolescent or an adult. Similarly, a reconstruction of the Fontéchevade II cranium indicates that it could equally possess or lack a supraorbital torus. Unfortunately, absolute proof of either reconstruction is not available, and therefore, the evolutionary significance of the fossils is uncertain.