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Re: Australopithicus factual info
Ralph L Holloway (rlh2@columbia.edu)
Tue, 27 Jun 1995 01:06:57 -0400
"Mrs, MS" Ples, or STS 5 had a cranial capacity of 485 cc. No one knows
whether it was a female or not. Up until recently, it was the biggest
gracile australopithecine brain endocast that I've studied. The word is
that there is something bigger from Sterkfontein and either Phillip
Tobias or Ron Clarke will be describing it. Could be about 500 cc+.
Many of the endocasts were over estimated, particularly the robust
ones, and of course the Taung child. But "Mrs" Ples has not teeth, so
we cannot truly be certain "she" was a "she".. RalphHolloway
> Yes, this sounds like Sts 5 (Mrs Ples). Sts 5 was female, and in
> africanus the males were probably considerably bigger than the males. I
> think it's probable that plenty of male (and even female) piths had
> brains over 500 cc; we just don't have a big enough sample size to have
> found them yet.
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