ArticleScientific reports2021
Cochlear shape distinguishes southern African early hominin taxa with unique auditory ecologies.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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5 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Complex and diverse patterns of neurocranial development in Australopithecus, Paranthropus and Homo.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Hominin fossils from Kromdraai and Drimolen informScience advances · 2023Article
- Reappraising the palaeobiology of Australopithecus.Nature · 2023Review
- New fossils from Kromdraai and Drimolen, South Africa, and their distinctiveness among Paranthropus robustus.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- A new early hominin calcaneus from Kromdraai (South Africa).Journal of anatomy · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 6 institutions in 4 countries.
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Abstract
Insights into potential differences among the bony labyrinths of Plio-Pleistocene hominins may inform their evolutionary histories and sensory ecologies. We use four recently-discovered bony labyrinths from the site of Kromdraai to significantly expand the sample for Paranthropus robustus. Diffeomorphometry, which provides detailed information about cochlear shape, reveals size-independent differences in cochlear shape between P. robustus and Australopithecus africanus that exceed those among modern humans and the African apes. The cochlea of P. robustus is distinctive and relatively invariant, whereas cochlear shape in A. africanus is more variable, resembles that of early Homo, and shows a degree of morphological polymorphism comparable to that evinced by modern species. The curvature of the P. robustus cochlea is uniquely derived and is consistent with enhanced sensitivity to low-frequency sounds. Combined with evidence for selection, our findings suggest that sound perception shaped distinct ecological adaptations among southern African early hominins.
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