Doctoral Dissertation Improvement for Danielle Royer: Omo 1 and Variation in Early Homo sapiens Postcranial Morphology

对早期现代人头骨化石（EMH）的研究表明，这些人在形态上是多样化的，表现出现代和古代特征的可变马赛克。然而，到目前为止，骨骼肢体骨骼中EMH形态多样性的大小和模式研究甚少。这项研究将采用统计方法来调查EMH化石骨骼的变化，这些化石可追溯到19.5万至2.5万年前，来自非洲、欧洲和近东的许多地方。这些分析将确定来自不同地理区域和时间段的EMH之间的骨骼相似性，以及EMH与几种热适应现代人之间的骨骼相似性，包括考古样本，可以评估随时间的变化。由此产生的形态学数据集将被分析，以评估使用不同的现代样本来解决化石关系的影响，并测试EMH在他们的骨骼中是否比活着的人类更可变。在这些现代比较样本中，有相当大的时间深度，这将允许首次在仔细控制的样本中评估形态变化或可变性。此外，这项工作将首次详细分析来自埃塞俄比亚的Omo I化石的肢骨形态，该化石可追溯到大约19.5万年前，是目前已知的最古老的早期现代人类骨骼。迄今为止，对这一重要化石的分析仅限于头骨的解剖。通过对肢体骨骼的研究，这些比较将为研究生物向现代的过渡提供一个新的视角，这将补充之前对头骨的研究。这项研究将扩大我们对过去和现在人类骨骼变异的认识。除了为一名女研究生提供培训之外，这项研究还构成了与非洲代表性不足的科学家建立未来合作的第一步，并且将有助于确保保存研究不足的藏品以供将来使用。将建立一个庞大的四肢测量数据库，这些数据库来自大量的人类化石和适应热的现代样本，并将免费提供。考虑到非颅骨形态学数据集的稀缺，以及国外研究的困难和费用，这些数据将对未来几代研究人员非常有用。重要的是，这些数据库将保存重要和不可替代的科学信息，这些信息可能很快就会受到世界各地人类骨骼收藏品遣返的威胁。

Studies of the fossil skulls of early modern humans (EMH) suggest that these people were morphologically diverse, exhibiting a variable mosaic of modern and archaic features. However, the magnitude and pattern of EMH morphological diversity in the limb bones of the skeleton has been very poorly studied so far. This study will employ statistical methods to investigate variation in the skeletons of EMH fossils that date to between 195,000 and 25,000 years ago from numerous localities throughout Africa, Europe and the Near East. These analyses will determine the skeletal similarities between EMH from different geographic regions and time periods, and between EMH and several heat-adapted modern human populations including archaeological samples that permit an assessment of variation through time. The resultant morphological datasets will be analyzed to assess the impact of using different modern samples to resolve fossil relationships, and test whether EMH were more variable in their skeletons than living humans. Among these modern comparative samples are ones with considerable temporal depth, and this will permit assessment of morphological change or variability in a carefully controlled sample for the first time. In addition, this work will provide the first detailed analysis of the limb bone morphology of the Omo I fossil from Ethiopia, which dates to approximately 195,000 years ago, and represents the oldest currently known early modern human skeleton. To date, analyses of this important fossil have been limited to the anatomy of the skull.By focusing on limb bones, these comparisons will provide a new perspective on the biological transition to modernity that will compliment previous work on the skull. This study will broaden our knowledge of human skeletal variation, both past and present. As well as providing training for a female graduate student, this study constitutes a first step towards building future collaborations with under-represented researchers in Africa, and will help ensure that poorly-studied collections are maintained for future use. A large database of limb measurements from numerous human fossils and heat-adapted modern samples will be created and made freely available. Given the scarcity of accessible non-cranial morphological datasets, and the difficulties and expense of foreign research, these data will be extremely useful to future generations of researchers. Significantly, these databases will preserve important and irreplaceable scientific information that may soon be threatened by the repatriation of human skeletal collections worldwide.