ANALYSIS OF THE PROBABILITY OF MULTIPLE TAXA IN A COMBINED SAMPLE OF SWARTKRANS AND KROMDRAAI DENTAL MATERIAL

It has been argued (Grine, [1988] Evolutionary History of the ''Robust '' Australopithecines [New York. Aldine de Gruyter], pp. 223-243) that the australopithecine material from Swartkrans and Kromdraai represen ts distinct species. In an attempt to test the validity of separate ta xa at Swartkrans and Kromdraai, Cope's (Cope [1989] Systematic Variati on in Cercopithecus Dental Samples [Austin: University of Texas]) meth od of analysis was adapted and utilized. This procedure includes an an alysis of the coefficients of variation (CVs) of the individual poster ior teeth (buccal-lingual breadth) of a combined fossil sample compare d with the CVs of several known single taxon reference groups. The Cop s and Lacy (Cope and Lacy [1992] Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 89:359-378) s imulation technique was also employed in the analysis. Based on these analyses, there is no justification for a taxonomic separation between the australopithecine material from Swartkrans and Kromdraai. Therefo re, the assertion that the Swartkrans and Kromdraai material represent two distinct species is not indicated by the available dental metric evidence. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.