There has been a longstanding debate as to the rate at which our ancestors, the australopithecines, matured and developed. Some say they had a long period of childhood dependency as we do; others say they followed the development pattern of modern apes, while others propose a unique pattern. The resolution of this debate will tell us much about the evolution of learning ability and culture, for a long childhood dependency accompanies the need for a long period of learning. This dissertation improvement project will help to clarify the issue by carrying out extensive examination of the one relatively complete australopithecine of juvenile age - Laetoli Hominid 21. Metric and non-metric aspects of the skeleton will be compared with samples of modern apes and humans and thereby give us a better picture of the developmental pattern in this ancestral form.
