Smith Heather F
Department of Anatomy, Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine, Midwestern University, 19555 North 59th Avenue, Glendale, AZ 85308, USA.
Int J Evol Biol. 2011 Mar 3;2011:145262. doi: 10.4061/2011/145262.
The means by which various microevolutionary processes have acted in the past to produce patterns of cranial variation that characterize modern humans is not thoroughly understood. Applying a microevolutionary framework, within- and among-population variance/covariance (V/CV) structure was compared for several functional and developmental modules of the skull across a worldwide sample of modern humans. V/CV patterns in the basicranium, temporal bone, and face are proportional within and among groups, which is consistent with a hypothesis of neutral evolution; however, mandibular morphology deviated from this pattern. Degree of intergroup similarity in facial, temporal bone, and mandibular morphology is significantly correlated with geographic distance; however, much of the variance remains unexplained. These findings provide insight into the evolutionary history of modern human cranial variation by identifying signatures of genetic drift, gene flow, and migration and set the stage for inferences regarding selective pressures that early humans encountered since their initial migrations around the world.
过去各种微进化过程通过何种方式作用以产生现代人类特有的颅骨变异模式，目前尚未被完全理解。应用微进化框架，在全球现代人类样本中，对颅骨的几个功能和发育模块的群体内和群体间方差/协方差（V/CV）结构进行了比较。颅底、颞骨和面部的V/CV模式在组内和组间是成比例的，这与中性进化假说一致；然而，下颌形态偏离了这种模式。面部、颞骨和下颌形态的组间相似程度与地理距离显著相关；然而，许多变异仍无法解释。这些发现通过识别遗传漂变、基因流动和迁移的特征，为了解现代人类颅骨变异的进化历史提供了见解，并为推断早期人类自最初在全球迁徙以来所遇到的选择压力奠定了基础。
