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

已经灭绝的尼安德特人（Neanderthals）的系统位置是当前古人类学界关于现代人起源的主要争论的核心问题。这些早期人类是不同于我们自己的物种吗？智人（Homo sapiens），或者他们是一个亚种，甚至是与人类相同的“种族”？为了回答这个长期争论的问题，在这项研究的过程中，PI将开发物种内部和物种之间颅骨形态变化的模型。这些模型将以现存的灵长类动物为基础，包括现代人的地理种群，以及黑猩猩、狒狒和猕猴的地理种群和物种。它们应该阐明形态变异是如何在物种内部和物种之间的不同等级水平上分布的。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种群的测量，目的是解决尼安德特人和早期欧洲人类化石在人属中的分类位置问题。在三维数字化系统的帮助下，许多被提出的尼安德特人特化特征所在的颞骨和枕骨将被定量研究。数据将以三维地标和山脊曲线坐标的形式收集，并将使用一系列多元统计技术进行分析。这些尼安德特人的特征将被评估在化石群研究中的分布和可变性，以及在最近的人类中。关于尼安德特人和早期欧洲人类种群的分类等级的预测假设，以及关于这些化石群体和现代欧洲人之间关系的假设，将在变异模型的基础上得到检验。

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.