Computed femur and tibia volumes and cranial capacity under near‐optimal conditions of skeletal growth: Relation to geomagnetic dipole field intensity and other latitude‐dependent climatic variables in archaeological North America and North Africa

Abstract

AbstractUsing computed femur (F) and tibia (T) volumes and cranial capacity (CC), the Pleistocene geomagnetic acromegalosis (PGMA) model of human evolution is tested in eight series of male skeleton sets (n = 123) from aboriginal North America and North Africa, the majority dated to the Holocene. The material was selected from the extensive multiracial osteometric data base previously assembled in the course of adult residual rickets (RR) skeletal plasticity research in archaeological populations of the Northern Hemisphere, controlling for optimal bone eutrophism, that is, for the absence of sunshine and calcium deficits and demographic stress. Six of the eight series are of hunter‐gatherers, including a terminal Pleistocene mesolithic sample from the Maghreb. As predicted by PGMA, a clear osteotrophic response is observed between the F, T, and CC of these populations and their geomagnetic dipole field intensity (GMFI) backgrounds, here expressed in microteslas (μT); along with evidence that the GMFI‐dependent osteotrophism is stronger near the sagittal plane. Slightly higher bioenvironmental correlations, also compatible with PGMA, are obtained with a composite environmental osteotrophism parameter (CEOT.J), which incorporates the reciprocal of the archaeological site's reconstructed mean July temperature as a synergizer of GMFI. In a final demonstration of the utility of the new computed osteovolumetrics, it is shown that Skhul IV, to judge from its size and proportions, is a hyperrobust pre‐neanderthal male skeleton of early Late Pleistocene interglacial age, and belongs to the North African geographical race.