Dissertation Research: A Quantitative Assessment of Variability in the Australopithecine, Human, Chimpanzee and Gorilla Face

对人类进化的解释依赖于对几个灭绝的原始人物种的行为和生态的分析。然而，已知标本代表的化石物种的数量仍然存在争议，将许多单独的标本分配给特定物种的问题也是如此。一个基本的悬而未决的问题涉及单个物种的多样性范围：在什么情况下，任何两个或更多标本之间的差异足以表明它们来自不同的物种，而不是简单地表示单个物种的个体之间的差异？利用新的计算机数字化技术和三维分析，将对几乎所有可用的南方古猿化石的面骨进行测量，并将对现代人、黑猩猩和大猩猩的大量骨骼材料进行相同的面部结构测量。这三个现代物种面部形态的变异范围将被用作比较南方古猿标本之间变异范围的基础。这些结果将为研究早期人类祖先的种群结构和性别二型性提供重要的见解。现有的数据将用于评估将南方古猿标本归类为物种组的情况，以及确定目前定义的南方古猿物种是否比现代类似物种更具变异性。

The interpretation of human evolution depends upon analysis of the behavior and ecology of several extinct hominid species. However, the number of fossil species represented by known specimens remains controversial, as does the assignment of many individual specimens to particular species. A basic unresolved problem concerns the range of diversity of individual species: At what point are the differences between any two or more specimens sufficient to suggest that they are from different species, as opposed to simply representing the differences found among individuals from a single species? Using new computer digitizing technology and three-dimensional analyses, measurements will be taken from the facial bones of virtually all available australopithecine fossils, and measurements of the identical facial structures will be taken on large samples of skeletal material of modern humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas. The range of variation in facial morphology of these three modern species will be used as a basis of comparison for the ranges of variation among australopithecine specimens. These results will provide important insights into population structure and sexual dimorphism of early human ancestors. The extant data will serve to both evaluate the categorization of australpithecine specimens into species groups, as well as to establish whether or not australopithecine species as currently defined are more or less variable than modern analogues.