Dissertation Research: Another unique (sub) species? The Distribution of Morphological Variation Within and Among Species and the Pleistocene Hominid Fossil Record

尼安德特人这个已灭绝的人类群体的系统地位是当前古人类学关于现代人类起源的主要争论的核心问题。这些早期的人类是不是属于一个与我们不同的物种。智人，或者他们是一个亚种，甚至是一个“种族”的健全的物种作为生活的人？为了解决这一长期争议，在这项研究过程中，PI将开发物种内和物种间颅骨形态变化的模型。这些模型将基于现存的灵长类动物，包括现代人类的地理种群，以及黑猩猩、狒狒和猕猴的地理种群和物种。他们应该阐明形态变异是如何分布在不同层次的物种内和物种之间。对来自欧亚大陆西部的人类种群和来自同一地理范围的现代人类的测量，目的是解决尼安德特人和早期欧洲化石人类群体在人属中的分类位置问题。颞骨和枕骨是许多被提出的特化尼安德特人特征的所在，将在三维数字化系统的帮助下进行定量研究。将以三维标志和脊曲线坐标的形式收集数据，并使用一系列多元统计技术进行分析。将评估所提出的尼安德特人特征在化石群研究中的分布和变异性，以及在近代人类中的分布和变异性。关于尼安德特人和欧洲早期化石人类种群的分类等级的预测假设，以及关于这些化石群与现代欧洲人之间关系的假设，将根据变异模型进行测试。

The systematic position of the extinct human group known as the Neanderthals is a question which lies at the core of a major current paleoanthropological debate on modern human origins. Are these early people members of a species distinct from our own. Homo sapiens, or are they a subspecies or even a "race" of the sane species as living people? On order to approuch as answer to this longtime controversy, in the course of this research the PI will develop models of variation in cranial morphology within and between species. These models will be based on living primates, including geographic populations of modern humans, as well as geographic populations and species of chimpanzes, baboons and macaques. They should shed light on how morphological varitions is distributed at different hierarchical levels both within and among species. The measures of human populations from Western Eurasia and modern humans from the same geographic range, with the purpose of resolving the problems of the taxonomic position of Neanderthals and earlier European fossils human groups within the genus Homo. The temporal and occipital bones, where many proposed specialized neanderthal traits are located, will be studied quantitatively with the help of a three-dimensional digitizing system. Data will be collected in the form of three dimensional landmark and ridge curves coordinates and will be analyzed using an array of multivariate statistical techniques. The proposed Neanderthal traits will be evaluated for their distribution and variability in the fossil groups studie, as well as in recent humans. Predictive hypotheses about the taxonomic rank of Neanderthals and the earlier fossil human populations of Europe, as well as hypotheses about the relationships between these fossil group and modern Europeans, will be tested based on the models of variation.