Comparative morphometric study of the australopithecine vertebral series Stw-H8/H41

Lower spinal structure correlates well with positional behavior among mammals. Nonetheless, the functional morphology of the axial post-crania of australopithecines has received less attention than their appendicular skeletons. This paper presents a detailed description and comparative morphometric analysis of the australopithecine thoracolumbar vertebral series Stw-H8/H41, and examines spinal mechanics in early hominids. Stw-H8/H41 is an important specimen, as the australopithecine vertebral sample is small, and vertebral series are more useful than isolated elements for the interpretation of spinal function. Results of the study support the interpretation that australopithecine species are highly sexually dimorphic. The study also reveals a considerable amount of morphometric variation other than size among australopithecine vertebrae, though the sample is too small and incomplete to ascertain whether this indicates significant interspecific differences in spinal function. Most importantly, structural and metric observations confirm that the morphology of the lower spine in australopithecines has no modern analogue in its entirety. Aspects of zygapophyseal structure, numerical composition of the lumbar region, and centrum wedging suggest that the australopithecine vertebral column was adapted to human-like intrinsic lumbar lordosis and stable balance of the trunk over the pelvis in sustained bipedal locomotion. However, relative centrum size in australopithecines indicates that either they had a different mechanism for channeling vertical forces through the vertebral column than humans, or differed behaviorally from humans in ways that produced smaller increments of compression across their centra. These findings have important implications for hypotheses of australopithecine positional behavior, and demonstrate that larger samples and more complete vertebral series are needed to improve our understanding of australopithecine spinal function.