Morphological characteristics of a human talus discovered at Hijiridaki Cave in Oita Prefecture.

概要

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In 1983, a human left talus was discovered at Hijiridaki Cave in Oita Prefecture by a surface survey. This talus was highly fossilized and contains fluorine much more than the human skeletal remains excavated from the same cave in 1962 (Matsu'ura, 1984). Since the human skeletal remains found in 1962 were accompanied with microliths dated to ca. 14 kyr BP, the talus was expected to be dated in the Pleistocene.Usual features were observed on the posterior process of the talus. Loss of the medial tubercle of the posterior process apparently was not caused by postmortem damages. The groove for flexor hallucis longus and the posterior margin of the trochlear surface were obscure. Bone surface texture around the posterior process was not smooth, but on close inspection it was porous. We speculate that an incomplete ossification, isolated os trigonum, or traumatic injury might have caused the unusual features of this talus. A morphometric comparison of the present talus with those of the Upper Paleolithic Minatogawa man, Neolithic Jomonese and modern Japanese showed that the left Hijiridaki talus was similar to that of the Jomonese, but not to that of the Upper Paleolithic Minatogawa man.
日本人類学会の論文