Evolutionary morphology of human skeletal characteristics.

Human skeletal morphology has been a central focus of physical anthropology since the origin of the discipline about a century ago. Over that period skeletally-related characteristics, continuous and discontinuous, have been studied extensively in present and past populations. Through time our awareness of the interactions between the genetic and environmental influences reflected in skeletally-related phenotypes has become increasingly detailed and sophisticated. This paper reviews our growing knowledge of the genetic basis of human skeletal morphology, with particular emphasis on the significance of this information for the reconstruction of relationships among populations distributed broadly in space and time.