Moscow University
Anthropology
Bulletin
Anthropology
Bulletin
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Anuchin Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology, Mokhovaya st., 11, Moscow, 125009, Russia
Bulygina E.Yu., ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8548-0995, e-mail: ebulygin@yahoo.com
Here we present a case of application and discusses usage of a geometric morphometric ap-proach for phylogenetic analysis of juvenile fossils. We calculate and test post-natal ontogenetic regres-sions on frontal bone material in a number of late Pleistocene hominins as well as in a modern human sample. The obtained data is further used for identification of “unknown” juvenile fossils: Teshik-Tash, Staroselie, Sungir 2 and Sungir 3. Furthermore, we discuss the influence of differences in the direction of the post-natal trajectories and reliability of reconstruction of adult individuals from “unknown” juveniles with the help of ontogenetic regressions of “known” groups. The material included a comparative sample of frontal bone. The morphology was captured with the help of 3D coordinates. Data analysis involved basic geometric morphometric approach together with a combination of regression analysis and principal components analysis. Group differences were tested with the help of bootstrap approach. The presented combination of methods yielded interesting results in morphological analysis of the multi-age data sample. The projection of the original data into the ontogenetic space of the principal components has allowed observation of both ontogenetic and group differentiation among individuals. The analysis has shown that the Teshik-Tash fossil has strong association with Neanderthals, whereas Staroselie and Sungir’ children – with modern humans. It has been also demonstrated that dif-ferences between ontogenetic regression coefficients in modern humans, early West Asian Homo sapiens and Neanderthals are not statistically significant. At the same time, the differences in directions of post-natal development are present and best seen between recent modern humans and other fossils hominins in the sample. This plays central role in reconstruction of an adult sample from juveniles. It is suggested that differentiation between adult modern humans and Neanderthals is achieved due to their pre-natal differences in the frontal bone morphology as well as due to the divergence in the post-natal growth tra-jectories. At the same time, differentiation between modern humans and West Asian hominins could be achieved mostly due to the differences in the postnatal development.
anthropology, evolutionary morphology, geometric morphometrics, ontogenetic trajectories, frontal bone, Late Pleistocene hominins
Цит.: Bulygina E.Yu. Frontal bone growth trajectory in three groups of hominins // Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin (Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seria XXIII. Antropologia), 2012; 3/2012; с. 12-24
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