Lynch J M, Wood C G, Luboga S A
Department of Zoology, Arizona State University, Tempe 85287-0302, USA.
Folia Primatol (Basel). 1996;67(1):15-39. doi: 10.1159/000157203.
Traditionally, morphometric studies have relied on statistical analysis of distances, angles or ratios to investigate morphometric variation among taxa. Recently, geometric techniques have been developed for the direct analysis of landmark data. In this paper, we offer a summary (with examples) of three of these newer techniques, namely shape coordinate, thin-plate spline and relative warp analyses. Shape coordinate analysis detected significant craniofacial variation between 4 modern human populations, with African and Australian Aboriginal specimens being relatively prognathous compared with their Eurasian counterparts. In addition, the Australian specimens exhibited greater basicranial flexion than all other samples. The observed relationships between size and craniofacial shape were weak. The decomposition of shape variation into affine and non-affine components is illustrated via a thin-plate spline analysis of Homo and Pan cranial landmarks. We note differences between Homo and Pan in the degree of prognathism and basicranial flexion and the position and orientation of the foramen magnum. We compare these results with previous studies of these features in higher primates and discuss the utility of geometric morphometrics as a tool in primatology and physical anthropology. We conclude that many studies of morphological variation, both within and between taxa, would benefit from the graphical nature of these techniques.
传统上，形态测量学研究依赖于对距离、角度或比例进行统计分析，以研究不同分类群之间的形态测量变异。最近，已经开发出几何技术用于直接分析地标数据。在本文中，我们提供了其中三种较新技术的概述（并举例），即形状坐标分析、薄板样条分析和相对扭曲分析。形状坐标分析检测到4个现代人类群体之间存在显著的颅面变异，与欧亚人群相比，非洲和澳大利亚原住民标本的面部相对前突。此外，澳大利亚标本的颅底弯曲程度比所有其他样本都更大。观察到的大小与颅面形状之间的关系较弱。通过对人类和黑猩猩颅骨地标进行薄板样条分析，说明了形状变异分解为仿射和非仿射成分的情况。我们注意到人类和黑猩猩在突颌程度和颅底弯曲程度以及枕骨大孔的位置和方向上存在差异。我们将这些结果与之前对高等灵长类动物这些特征的研究进行比较，并讨论几何形态测量学作为灵长类学和体质人类学工具的实用性。我们得出结论，许多关于分类群内部和分类群之间形态变异的研究将受益于这些技术的图形性质。
