Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: The Influences of Brain Anatomy on Facial Positioning in Anthropoid Primates: Implications for Modern Human Origins

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This dissertation research will investigate variation in the anatomical relationship of the facial skeleton and the braincase in anthropoid primates. Particularly, this study will test three hypotheses that represent non-mutually exclusive explanations for the position of the facial skeleton relative to the rest of the skull. The first two hypotheses posit that the position of the facial skeleton in anthropoid primates is determined by the anatomy of the brain -- by the overall size of the brain and the size of the temporal lobe, respectively. The third hypothesis represents an alternative to the notion that facial positioning in anthropoids is determined by the anatomy of the brain, and suggests instead that the size of the facial skeleton itself determines its position relative to the braincase. The hypotheses will be tested using data collected from digital radiographs of anthropoid skulls and MRI scans of anthropoid brains. The predictions of the hypotheses will be evaluated using metric and geometric morphometric methods, and phylogenetic comparative methods will be employed to adjust statistically for the evolutionary relationships among the taxa in the sample. The results of this research will have important implications for understanding craniofacial architecture in anthropoid primates and will specific relevance for understanding the derived cranial form of Homo sapiens. The radiographs collected in the course of this dissertation will be published on a free online database that will be useful for physical anthropologists and other scientists and for educators. This project will also support the graduate training of a promising scientist.