Some Aspects of Cranial Size and Shape, and Their Variation among Later Pleistocene Hominids - Frieß - 1999

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'Frieß M, 1999: Some Aspects of Cranial Size and Shape, and Their Variation among Later Pleistocene Hominids. Anthropologie (Brno) 37, 3: 239-246'.

Abstract

This paper investigates allometric relationships in later Pleistocene fossil humans using geometric morphometrics, The purpose is to re-evaluate variation of cranial size and shape and to differentiate pure shape change from size-induced trends. Cartesian coordinates were collected from 63 fossil specimens, mostly originals, as well as from a large modern sample. Based on Bookstein's relative warps analysis (Bookstein 1991, Rohlf 1993), shape variation was examined and related to centroid size. Results confirm on the one hand strong affinities between Near-Eastern Middle Palaeolithic humans and clearly modern populations, and reveal on the other a common archaic vault shape among the Neanderthals and archaic Homo sapiens. The role of allometric phenomena for facial morphology is also discussed. It is concluded that evidence for a gradual evolution towards modern Homo sapiens in Africa (Bräuer 1984) is poor.

Keywords

Modern human origins - Cranial size and shape - Allometry - Geometric morphometrics

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