Can the question of posture and mode of locomotion of Australopithecines be solved by discussing limb-mechanical relationships?

Considerations on the use of statistical methods in the context of osteometric investigations as a contribution to the pre- and protohistoric periodization discussion

Abstract

Regression equations are presented that can be used to infer the total length of the humerus from segmental measurements. It is emphasised that it is not appropriate to apply estimation formulas obtained from a particular material for calculating the total length of limb long bones to skeletal elements that originate from complexes that are foreign in temporal, sociological and ethnic terms. The use of such estimation formulas developed on medieval skeletal material within the Australopithecine find complex is therefore methodologically unjustifiable. The use of hypothetical bone lengths obtained with the help of biometry on recent skeletal material (from the Middle Ages and modern times) in further calculations and considerations on the subject of "limb proportions of the Australopithecines" has a speculative character and is likely to undermine the credibility of the results of statistical procedures within the framework of osteometric investigations. The question of the posture and locomotion of the australopithecines cannot be solved by discussing the mechanics of the limbs as long as the expected new finds do not include long bones of the extremities whose state of preservation does not allow the measurement of the total length of the limbs. preservation condition allows the measurement of the respective total bone length without error.
According to the current state of comparative morphological investigations of the limbs, spine and foot, it may be assumed that the australopithecines were bipedal right-walkers who in certain functional details had not fully reached the developmental level characteristic of (eu)hominins.