Nasomaxillary remodeling and facial form in robust Australopithecus: a reassessment

In a previous study of the patterns of facial growth remodeling characteristic of early hominid taxa, Bromage (1989) demonstrated that the nasoalveolar clivus of A. robustus was resorptive throughout ontogeny. Based upon the remodeling information provided by small samples (n = 6 each) of chimpanzees and modern humans, he concluded that the clival resorption pattern characteristic of robust Australopithecus differed significantly from that of chimpanzees and was instead somewhat convergent upon that of modern humans, in that it served to emphasize a downward facial growth vector. The present study used the SEM/replica technique to assess nasomaxillary remodeling in larger, more age-varied samples of chimpanzee (n = 33) and modern human crania (n = 22). Results indicate far more intraspecific variability in nasomaxillary remodeling than suggested by Bromage's earlier study. In particular, results from an expanded sample demonstrate that the nasoalveolar clivus of chimpanzees is frequently resorptive, especially at later stages of ontogeny. However, the pattern of clival remodeling observed in chimpanzees is unlike that typical of robust Australopithecus, in which clival resorption occurs throughout ontogeny and in expansive fields that cover the entire clival surface. Although Bromage (1989) considered the pattern of nasomaxillary remodeling observed in robust Australopithecus to have been a byproduct of an extreme maxillary growth rotation, the failure of A. africanus to display a similar pattern suggests that some other factor(s) may have been involved. Regardless, it is unlikely that clival resorption in robust Australopithecus would have significantly impacted the overall vector of facial growth. Instead, the primary morphogenetic effect of this pattern of clival resorption would have been one of local surface sculpting.