Abstract
Recent surveys of Australian prehistory1–4 reveal the interest and debate surrounding the evolutionary implications of the observed range in cranial morphology of modern Australian Aborigines and their predecessors. In spite of an earlier model postulating a trihybrid origin5,6, a theory favouring a homogeneous colonising stock had gained some acceptance7,8. Discoveries9,10 of the past decade raised doubts about the validity of the homogeneity concept and suggested an alternative two-population—gracile and robust—model11–13. However, as all the material described was derived from a restricted area of South-East Australia, the possibility existed that the apparent dichotomy might reflect isolate variation or local adaptation14. We discuss here recently described human skeletal material from Cossack, Western Australia15 which has a demonstrable affinity with the postulated South-East Australian robust group, making local adaptation/population isolate explanations unlikely. The Cossack skull supports arguments favouring an early dihybrid origin with substantial change in Australian Aboriginal cranial morphology since the Pleistocene.
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Freedman, L., Lofgren, M. The Cossack skull and a dihybrid origin of the Australian Aborigines. Nature 282, 298–300 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/282298a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/282298a0
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