Modern European cranial variables and blood polymorphisms show comparable spatial patterns.

Spatial patterns in cranial traits for modern European populations are compared with patterns described by Sokal et al. (1989) for blood polymorphisms. Spatial patterns in these variables are described from both one-dimensional and directional autocorrelation correlograms. Manhattan distances computed among one-dimensional correlograms are used (1) to cluster variables with similar patterns and (2) to test the hypothesis that these clusters are to some extent accounted for by the type of variable. The one-dimensional correlograms for cranial traits do not show a significant contrast with either red cell antigens or the set of blood polymorphisms that excludes HLA. The only contrast that accounts for any of the cluster structure among one-dimensional correlograms is that between HLA and non-HLA variables. A cluster analysis of the directional correlograms demonstrates that cranial traits reflect patterns comparable to those for blood polymorphisms. This finding implies that patterns in cranial variables can be accounted for by the same, or similar, population processes as those inferred from patterns in blood polymorphisms. The implications of this finding for the likely origin of the northwest-southeast cline seen in some modern blood polymorphisms and modern cranial variables, but not in Neolithic cranial variables, are discussed.