This volume takes its subtitle from the theme of the ASHB meeting for 1995 “Humans in the Australasian Region”. Papers from the conference include a philosophical discussion of the ‘Great Ape Project’ by Colin Groves, and ‘An Osteological study of Holocene Biological Evolution of the Malay Peninsula Aborigines’ by David Bulbeck. In the short communications section, Colin Groves considers the hominid and faunal material of the Australia-New Guinea region which may explain the failure of Homo erectus to colonize Australia.Additional papers are from Peter Lisowski who provides a historical and contemporary overview of health care in China, Lincoln Schmitt who discusses the interpretation of DNA variation in the legal setting, and Charles Oxnard and Alanah Buck who present their work on techniques of assessing osteoporosis from non-invasive Fourier analyses of bone structure.The Evolution of Modern Diversity: a Study of Cranial Variation, by Marta Mirazon Lahr, is reviewed by Leonard Freedman.