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

Danielle Royer 博士论文改进：Omo 1 和早期智人颅后形态学的变异

• 批准号: 0726115
• 负责人: Frederick Grine
• 金额: $ 1.49万
• 依托单位: SUNY at Stony Brook
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-07-15 至 2008-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0726115&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Danielle; Royer

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.

对早期现代人类 (EMH) 化石头骨的研究表明，这些人在形态上多样化，表现出现代和古代特征的可变镶嵌。 然而，迄今为止，对骨骼四肢骨中有效市场假说形态多样性的程度和模式的研究还很少。 这项研究将采用统计方法来调查来自非洲、欧洲和近东许多地区的有效假说化石骨骼的变化，这些化石的年代可追溯到 195,000 至 25,000 年前。 这些分析将确定来自不同地理区域和时间段的有效市场假说之间的骨骼相似性，以及有效市场假说与几个适应热的现代人类群体之间的骨骼相似性，包括允许评估随时间变化的考古样本。 将分析由此产生的形态数据集，以评估使用不同现代样本来解决化石关系的影响，并测试有效市场假说的骨骼是否比活人的骨骼变化更大。 在这些现代比较样本中，有一些具有相当大的时间深度，这将允许首次评估仔细控制的样本中的形态变化或变异性。此外，这项工作还将首次对埃塞俄比亚奥莫一号化石的肢体骨骼形态进行详细分析，该化石的历史可以追溯到大约 195,000 年前，代表了目前已知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学。通过关注四肢骨，这些比较将为生物向现代性的转变提供新的视角，这将补充之前对头骨的研究。 这项研究将拓宽我们对过去和现在人类骨骼变异的认识。除了为女研究生提供培训外，这项研究也是与非洲代表性不足的研究人员建立未来合作的第一步，并将有助于确保研究不足的收藏品得到保留以供将来使用。 来自大量人类化石和热适应现代样本的肢体测量的大型数据库将被创建并免费提供。 鉴于可获取的非颅形态学数据集的稀缺性，以及国外研究的困难和费用，这些数据对于未来几代的研究人员来说将非常有用。 值得注意的是，这些数据库将保存重要且不可替代的科学信息，这些信息可能很快就会受到全球人类骨骼收藏品归还的威胁。