Departament de Biologia Animal, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Evolution. 2012 Apr;66(4):1010-23. doi: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2011.01496.x. Epub 2011 Nov 21.
It has long been unclear whether the different derived cranial traits of modern humans evolved independently in response to separate selection pressures or whether they resulted from the inherent morphological integration throughout the skull. In a novel approach to this issue, we combine evolutionary quantitative genetics and geometric morphometrics to analyze genetic and phenotypic integration in human skull shape. We measured human skulls in the ossuary of Hallstatt (Austria), which offer a unique opportunity because they are associated with genealogical data. Our results indicate pronounced covariation of traits throughout the skull. Separate simulations of selection for localized shape changes corresponding to some of the principal derived characters of modern human skulls produced outcomes that were similar to each other and involved a joint response in all of these traits. The data for both genetic and phenotypic shape variation were not consistent with the hypothesis that the face, cranial base, and cranial vault are completely independent modules but relatively strongly integrated structures. These results indicate pervasive integration in the human skull and suggest a reinterpretation of the selective scenario for human evolution where the origin of any one of the derived characters may have facilitated the evolution of the others.
长期以来，现代人颅部的不同衍生特征是独立进化以应对不同的选择压力，还是源于颅骨整体的固有形态整合，这一点一直不清楚。在解决这个问题的一种新方法中，我们结合进化数量遗传学和几何形态计量学，分析人类颅骨形状的遗传和表型整合。我们在哈斯塔特（奥地利）的太平间测量了人类颅骨，这为我们提供了一个独特的机会，因为这些颅骨与系谱数据有关。我们的研究结果表明，整个颅骨的特征存在明显的相关性。针对一些现代人类颅骨的主要衍生特征的局部形状变化进行的选择模拟，产生了彼此相似的结果，并导致所有这些特征都出现了共同反应。遗传和表型形状变化的数据都与以下假设不一致，即面部、颅基底和颅穹顶是完全独立的模块，而是相对较强的整合结构。这些结果表明人类颅骨存在普遍的整合，并提示了对人类进化选择情景的重新解释，其中任何一个衍生特征的起源都可能促进了其他特征的进化。
