Richtsmeier J T, McGrath J W
Am J Phys Anthropol. 1986 Jan;69(1):51-8. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.1330690107.
Cheverud and Buikstra (1981) demonstrated a tendency for nonmetric traits representing the number of foramina to have lower heritabilities than those representing hyperstotic or hypostotic traits in a sample of rhesus macaques. Based on this observation, Cheverud and Buikstra hypothesize that differences in the heritability of the two sets of traits may be due to differences in trait etiology. This study addresses the proposed relationship between trait heritability and etiology. Heritability values are calculated for 35 cranial nonmetric traits in a sample of 320 randombred mice using analysis of variance. The results are minimally consistent with the etiological hypothesis, but only 4 of the 35 traits showed statistically significant heritability values. These results are discussed with reference to the assumption that nonmetric traits have a strong genetic component. It is concluded that the developmental pathways that genetic variation traverses before being expressed in the form of nonmetric traits must be understood before variation in nonmetric traits can be used to its fullest potential.
切弗鲁德和比克斯特拉（1981年）在恒河猴样本中证明，代表孔数量的非计量性状的遗传力往往低于代表骨质增生或骨质减少性状的遗传力。基于这一观察结果，切弗鲁德和比克斯特拉推测，两组性状遗传力的差异可能归因于性状病因的差异。本研究探讨了性状遗传力与病因之间的假定关系。使用方差分析计算了320只随机繁殖小鼠样本中35个颅骨非计量性状的遗传力值。结果与病因假说的一致性极低，35个性状中只有4个显示出具有统计学意义的遗传力值。结合非计量性状具有强大遗传成分这一假设对这些结果进行了讨论。得出的结论是，在非计量性状变异能够得到充分利用之前，必须先了解遗传变异在以非计量性状形式表达之前所经历的发育途径。
