Metric analyses of an early holocene human skeleton from Gua Gunung Runtuh, Malaysia

A nearly complete human skeleton dating to the Early Holocene (epi-Paleolithic culture) excavated from Gua Gunung Runtuh, Malaysia, is described. Cranial, dental, and limb bone measurements are recorded on the skeleton, and compared with early and modern skeletal samples from Southeast Asia and Australia. The comparisons demonstrate that the Gua Gunung specimen is most similar to Australian Aborigines in dental and limb measurements, while the cranial measurements indicate a close affinity to Mesolithic samples from Malaysia and Flores. These findings further suggest that the Gua Gunung skeleton, as well as other fossils from Tabon and Niah, are representative of an early group of people who occupied Sundaland during the late Pleistocene, and may be the ancestors of Australian Aborigines. Some of the dental and limb bone measurements exhibited by the ancestors persist in Southeast Asian populations until the early Holocene. Differences in cranial traits have, however, accumulated since the late Pleistocene in Australian Aborigines and early Southeast Asian peoples.