Early Holocene Human Remains from the Argentinean Pampas: Additional Evidence for Distinctive Cranial Morphology of Early South Americans

PUCCIARELLI, HÉCTOR; PEREZ, SERGIO IVAN; POLITIS, GUSTAVO

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

WILEY-LISS, DIV JOHN WILEY & SONS INC

Año: 2010 vol. 143 p. 298 - 305

0002-9483

The cranial morphology of Early Holocene American human samples ischaracterized by a long and narrow cranial vault, while more recent samples exhibit a shorterand wider cranial vault. Two hypotheses have been proposed to account for the morphologicaldifferences between early and late American samples: a) the migratory hypothesis, whichsuggests that the morphological variation between early and late American samples was theresult of a variable number of migratory waves; and b) the local diversification hypothesis,i.e., the morphological differences between early and late American samples was mainlygenerated by local, random (genetic drift) and non-random factors (selection and phenotypicplasticity). We present the first craniometric study of three early skulls from the ArgentineanPampas, dated to ca. 8,000 14C yrs BP (Arroyo Seco 2, Chocorí and La Tigra), and oneassociated with mega-faunal remains (Fontezuelas skull). In addition, we studied several LateHolocene samples. We show that the skulls from the Argentinean Pampas aremorphologically similar to other Early Holocene American skulls (i.e., Lagoa Santa fromBrazil, Tequendama, Checua, and Aguazuque from Colombia, Lauricocha from Peru, andearly Mexicans) that exhibit long and narrow cranial vaults. These samples differ from theLate Holocene American samples that exhibit a shorter and wider cranial vault. Our resultsunderscore the important differences in cranial morphology between early and late Americansamples. However, we emphasize the need for further studies to discuss alternativehypotheses regarding such differences.