Testing the association between human mid‐facial morphology and climate using autosomal, mitochondrial, Y chromosomal polymorphisms and cranial non‐metrics

Abstract

A combination of several sources of genetic information could provide a more robust control for the effect of shared population history compared to just one type of markers since each of them has its own sources of bias and each provides a slightly different view of genetic relationships among the populations. Use of cranial non-metrics in researches examining the association between morphology and climate appears promising as they produce results that are generally consistent with those obtained using genetic markers.

Nasal cavity and maxillary sinuses form variation among modern humans of Asian descent

“…According to the loadings (see Figure a and Table S8), the first axis describes an association between a cold dry climate and an increase in the LENC (mostly), AHNC, and PWNC. Importantly, this is accompanied by and/or related to an increase in external facial and choanal heights and widths, and antero‐posterior length of the maxilla and palate (not shown in Figure , see Table S8), that is, to the pattern of ecogeographic variation found in our previous studies (Evteev et al, ; Evteev & Movsesian, ).…”

“…Sixteen external midfacial dimensions for 133 out of total 173 skulls (i.e., excluding the individuals from the L. Copes' dataset) were previously collected by the first author (A.E.) and partially used in his earlier publications (Evteev et al, , ; Evteev & Movsesian, ), where this measurement protocol was comprehensively described. In this study we used codes of variables employed in Evteev et al () and Table (see also Table S2).…”

Ecogeographic variation across morphofunctional units of the human nose

“…In the current study, Mantel tests were conducted to investigate potential correlations between nasal morphology and climate or geography. Moreover, geographic distances between samples (a commonly used proxy for genetic relatedness) may confound significant correlations between morphology and climate (Evteev & Movsesian, 2015;Hubbe et al, 2009;Roseman, 2004;Roseman & Weaver, 2004). Moreover, geographic distances between samples (a commonly used proxy for genetic relatedness) may confound significant correlations between morphology and climate (Evteev & Movsesian, 2015;Hubbe et al, 2009;Roseman, 2004;Roseman & Weaver, 2004).…”

“…Importantly, a significant, positive correlation between morphological and geographic distance would be indicative of an isolation-by-distance model (Athreya, 2006), with differences in nasal morphology best explained by the geographic proximity of the regional samples to one another. Moreover, geographic distances between samples (a commonly used proxy for genetic relatedness) may confound significant correlations between morphology and climate (Evteev & Movsesian, 2015;Hubbe et al, 2009;Roseman, 2004;Roseman & Weaver, 2004). Accordingly, in the event of significant positive correlations between morphological and climatic distance matrices during Based on partial Mantel test results, morphofunctional units exhibiting significant associations with climate independent of geographic distances were further assessed via two-block partial least squares (2B-PLS) analyses in MorphoJ (Klingenberg, 2011) to determine whether certain aspects of a unit's morphology predominantly contribute to its overall association with climate.…”

Nonmetric cranial trait variation and the origins of the Scythians

“…It has been established that phenotypic diversity revealed by nonmetric traits corresponds to actual genetic distances between different population groups (Hanihara, Ishida, & Dodo, ; Hanihara et al, ; Manica, Amos, Balloux, & Hanihara, ; Relethford, ; Roseman, ; Smith, ; Von Cramon‐Taubadel, ;). Moreover, recent studies confirmed that nonmetric traits are correlated with genetic data (mtDNA, Y‐chromosome, and autosomal short tandem repeats) and can provide an alternative to genetic markers for analysis (Evteev & Movsesian, ; Herrera, Hanihara, & Godde, ; Ricaut et al, ).…”