size variation in small-bodied humans from palau, micronesia尺寸变化小的人类从帕劳群岛、密克罗尼西亚.pdfVIP

Size Variation in Small-Bodied Humans from Palau, Micronesia Andrew Gallagher* School of Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Parktown, Johannesburg, South Africa Abstract Background: Recent discoveries on Palau are claimed to represent the remains of small-bodied humans that may display evidence insular size reduction. This claim has yet to be statistically validated Methodology/Principal Findings: Published postcranial specimens (n = 16) from Palau were assessed relative to recent small-bodied comparative samples. Resampling statistical approaches were employed to test specific hypotheses relating to body size in the Palau sample. Results confirm that the Palau postcranial sample is indisputably small-bodied. Conclusions/Significance: A single, homogenous body size morph is represented in early prehistoric postcrania from Palau. Small body size in early Palauans is an ancestral characteristic and was likely not a consequence of in-situ size reduction. Specimens from Palau have little bearing upon hypothesised insular size reduction in the ancestral lineage of Homo floresiensis. Citation: Gallagher A (2008) Size Variation in Small-Bodied Humans from Palau, Micronesia. PLoS ONE 3(12): e3939. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003939 Editor: Henry Harpending, University of Utah, United States of America Received June 9, 2008; Accepted October 24, 2008; Published December 17, 2008 Copyright: 2008 Gallagher. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: The Natural Environment Research Council (UK), University of the Witwatersrand Competing Interests: The author has declared that no competing interests exist. * E-mail: Andr