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and a cast of the distal humerus of Paranthropus robustus (Kromdraii TM 1517), the only australopithecine distal humerus then available. They concluded: “In these diagnostic measurements Kanapoi Hominoid 1 is strikingly close to the means of the human sample. It is larger than the individual of Paranthropus robustus represented by the corresponding humeral fragment from Kromdraai in each measurement” (B. Patterson and Howells 1967, p. 65). Patterson and Howells (1967, p. 65) added: “Paranthropus emerges from these morphological comparisons as rather less man-like than Kanapoi Hominoid 1.” Further emphasizing the humanlike character of the Kanapoi humerus, they said: “there are individuals in our sample of man on whom measurements . . . of Kanapoi Hominoid I can be duplicated almost exactly” (B. Patterson and Howells 1967, p. 66).

Patterson and Howells would not have dreamed of suggesting that the Kanapoi humerus belonged to an anatomically modern human. Nevertheless, if an anatomically modern human had died at Kanapoi 4.0–4.5 million years ago, he or she might have left a humerus exactly like the one they found.

Further confirmation of the humanlike morphology of the Kanapoi humerus (KNM KP 271) came from anthropologists Henry M. McHenry and Robert S. Corruccini of the University of California. Using multivariate analysis techniques, they compared 16 different measurements of the Kanapoi humerus with those of the humeri of all species of anthropoid apes, three species of monkeys, and two fossil hominids—Kromdraai (TM 1517) and East Rudolf (ER 739). McHenry and Corruccini (1975, p. 227) concluded that “the hominid fossil from Kanapoi resembles Homo sapiens very closely.” Elsewhere in the same study they noted: “The Kanapoi fossil is quite close to Homo, especially the Eskimo sample” (McHenry and Corruccini 1975, p. 235). Amplifying this, they stated that “the Kanapoi humerus is barely distinguishable from modern Homo” and “shows the early emergence of a Homo-like elbow in every subtle detail” (McHenry and Corruccini 1975, p. 240).

In an earlier study, McHenry (1973) wrote: “A humeral fragment has been found at Kanapoi that is almost five million years old yet almost indistinguishable in shape from many modern humeri. Geologically much younger australopithecine humeri at one or two million years are vastly different from those of modern man.” In his Harvard doctoral thesis, McHenry (1972, p. 95) stated that the Kana poi humerus fell “within the human range.” We have employed a simple multivariate analysis technique to evaluate the raw data supplied by McHenry in his thesis. We calculated the 16-dimensional vectors represented by his 16 measurements for each humerus, and took the size of the angles between any two vectors as indicators of the degree of similarity between the two humeri. A smaller angle means a greater similarity. This method, it should be noted, is size-independent. In other words, bones of the same conformation, though being of different size, will show a difference of zero degrees. Confirming McHenry, we found that at 2.75 degrees the Kanapoi humerus vector was closest to Homo sapiens. For comparison, the angle of Kanapoi with chimpanzee was 4.40 degrees. With Australopithecus robustus (Kromdraai TM 1517) the angle was 4.51 degrees, and with Australopithecus boisei ( East Rudolf) it was 4.83 degrees. In other words, the Kanapoi humerus differed from those of the australopithecines.

C. E. Oxnard (1975a, p. 97) agreed with McHenry’s analysis. He stated: “we can confirm clearly that the fossil from Kanapoi is very humanlike.” In his discussion, Oxnard pointed out that the Kanapoi humerus, although 4 million years old, was quite modern in form, while the australopithecine humeri from later periods were much less so. This led Oxnard (1975a, p. 121) to suggest, as did Louis Leakey, that the australopithecines were not in the main line of human evolution. Keeping Australopithecus as a human ancestor would result in a very unlikely progression from the humanlike Kanapoi humerus, to the markedly less humanlike