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The relationship between breadth and height of the mandibular corpus has been investigated in a sample of 77 hominid mandibles. An interspecific allometric increase in robusticity with size occurs between four taxonomic subgroups of Australopithecus, but subgroups of Homo vary in robusticity while differing little in size. Within taxonomic subgroups, variation in breadth is not significantly related to variation in height among the “gracile” australapithecines; however, it is isometrically related to height in the “robust” australopithecines and bears an allometric relationship to height in Homo. Thus, robusticity, in conjunction with size, may provide a useful indicator of the taxonomic affinities of hominid mandibles.
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Chamberlain et al. (1985) studied this question.
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