Cheverud J M, Buikstra J E, Twichell E
Am J Phys Anthropol. 1979 Feb;50(2):191-8. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.1330500207.
A long-standing controversy exists about the comparative utility of metric and non-metric traits as biological indicators in population studies. We hypothesize that the underlying scale which determines the presence or absence of a cranial non-metric trait is an expression of general and/or local size variation in the cranium. Therefore metric and non-metric traits will share a common developmental determination. The hypothesis implies that the underlying scale of a non-metric trait will be correlated with measures of cranial size and shape. Forty-eight cranial metric and twenty-five cranial non-metric traits were scored on the left side of adult male crania from four North American Indian populations. New threshold traits were generated for each non-metric trait by dichotomizing discriminant scores produced by discriminant function analysis. The discriminant analysis was performed using metric traits to discriminate between groups formed by non-metric trait presence or absence. Every non-metric trait tested was significantly correlated with its threshold trait in at least one population. The correlations were of moderate to high levels depending on the trait and population sample studied. This implies that metric and non-metric traits share a moderate to high degree of developmental determination. The cause of these correlations may lie in the common effects that growth and development of the soft tissue and functional spaces of the cranium exert on both metric and non-metric traits.
在群体研究中，作为生物学指标，公制性状和非公制性状的相对效用存在长期争议。我们假设，决定颅骨非公制性状存在与否的潜在尺度是颅骨整体和/或局部大小变化的一种表现。因此，公制性状和非公制性状将具有共同的发育决定因素。该假设意味着，非公制性状的潜在尺度将与颅骨大小和形状的测量值相关。对来自四个北美印第安人群体的成年男性颅骨左侧的48个颅骨公制性状和25个颅骨非公制性状进行了评分。通过将判别函数分析产生的判别分数二分法，为每个非公制性状生成了新的阈值性状。使用公制性状进行判别分析，以区分由非公制性状的存在或不存在形成的组。在至少一个群体中，每个测试的非公制性状与其阈值性状都显著相关。根据所研究的性状和群体样本，相关性从中等到高度不等。这意味着公制性状和非公制性状具有中等至高度的发育决定因素。这些相关性的原因可能在于颅骨软组织和功能空间的生长发育对公制和非公制性状产生的共同影响。
