Random genetic drift, natural selection, and noise in human cranial evolution

Abstract

The evolution of the human cranium is complex and no one evolutionary process has prevailed at the expense of all others. A holistic unification of phenome, genome, and environmental context, gives us a strong point of purchase on these problems, which is unavailable to any one traditional approach alone. Am J Phys Anthropol 160:582-592, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Moderate climate signature in cranial anatomy of late holocene human populations from Southern South America

“…Particularly, directional selection may have favored adaptation to local conditions, and together with a restricted gene flow, leaded to the divergence of southern South American populations. Therefore, this study supports the argument that the evolution of the human skull is a complex process where no one evolutionary factor has prevailed at the expense of all others (Roseman, ). Future studies that evaluate the association of climate factors with the cranial and postcranial skeletal variation in the same set of populations, comparing spatial scales of different extent, will contribute to address the influence that climate may have had on the diversification of southern South American populations, as well as modern humans worldwide.…”

Comparative performance of deciduous and permanent dental morphology in detecting biological relatives

“…The analytical approach used in these papers assesses whether phenotypic and genotypic data produce the same patterns of relationships, usually visualized in multivariate output. At the global scale, craniometric data have been compared against patterns of relatedness based on neutral genetic variation (Harvati & Weaver, ; Perez, Bernal, & Gonzalez, ; Reyes‐Centeno et al, ; Reyes‐Centeno, Ghirotto, & Harvati, ; Smith, ; Strauss & Hubbe, ; von Cramon‐Taubadel, ) with results generally affirming the value of craniometry (but see Roseman, ). Similar results have been obtained using dental data (e.g., Hanihara, ; Hanihara & Ishida, ; Scott et al, ), which provide broadly similar global patterns as neutral genetic variation.…”

Fueguian crania and the circum‐Pacific rim variation

“…We agree with those who feel that the differences between early and late American samples, related to evolutionary processes, are difficult to support using only cranial morphometric differences (Menendez et al, ). The craniometric data is limited, and needs to be examined in the light of archaeological and additional kind of evidence (see Roseman, ). More refined future studies using geometric morphometrics should enable significant advances to be made.…”