Stature-at-death of KNM-WT 15000

The specimen KNM-WT 15000 is an exceptionally complete 1.53 Myr juvenile skeleton of Homo erectus from West Turkana, Kenya. It therefore provides a unique opportunity to examine stature estimates of fossil hominids based strictly on long bone lengths. Using recovered axial and appendicular elements of KNM-WT 15000 that contributed to stature during life, we conclude that KNM-WT 15000 was much shorter at time-of-death than previous estimates that used only appendicular elements. We conservatively estimate stature-at-death at about 147 cm, although this individual could have been as short as 141 cm. Because long bone based estimates of stature also imply the axial skeletal proportion, our new stature estimate stems from the recognition of axial/appendicular disproportion in the individual KNM-WT 15000. It is possible that the peripubescent age-at-death of this specimen, and any resulting differential maturity between the appendicular and axial skeleton, may have contributed to previous overestimates of stature-at-death. However, the possibility that this individual was abnormal, as implied by axial/appendicular disproportion, remains to be fully tested. Regardless, these results suggest that some interpretations of the biology of early African Homo erectus, largely based upon KNM-WT 15000, should be viewed with caution.