Dissertation Research: A Quantitative Assessment of Frontal Bone Morphological Variation in Middle Pleistocene Homo Using Fourier Analysis

我们属在中更新世的进化是一个争论点。 有些人认为地理上分散的，形态上分化的种群是单一物种的成员。 另一些人则将群体之间的形态变化解释为物种水平的差异。 额骨是一个元素，可以提供重要的数据，试图在这两个模型之间作出决定，因为它提供了关于头骨的两个区域的变化的数据：脑颅和内脏颅。 此外，额叶的特征被用来区分直立人和智人。 这项研究将利用形态测量程序，椭圆傅立叶函数分析，以量化额骨的形态在一个样本的“古”人属标本（包括尼安德特人）可追溯到中更新世。 将收集额骨冠状、中矢状和旁矢状切片的边界轮廓数据并进行量化。为了建立时间趋势，将对邻近早更新世和晚更新世额骨进行量化。 地理变异也将确定在20个现代人从每一个9个人口与化石相吻合。 对这些假设的分析将阐明额骨的特征是如何作为性格复合体相互关联的，以及这些性格是如何反映性别和体型等潜在变异来源的。 这项研究将有助于对中更新世人科动物进化做出更有根据的推断。

The evolution of our genus during the Middle Pleistocene is a point of contention. Some view geographically dispersed, morphologically differentiated populations as members of a single species. Others interpret morphological variation among groups as signifying species level differences. The frontal bone is an element that can provide significant data in attempting to decide between these two models as it provides data regarding alterations in two regions of the skull: the neurocranium and the splanchnocranium. Additionally, traits of the frontal are used to distinguish Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. This research will utilize a morphometric procedure, Elliptical Fourier Function Analysis to quantify the morphology of the frontal bone in a sample of 'archaic" Homo specimens (including Neanderthals) dated to the Middle Pleistocene. Boundary outline data of coronal, mid-sagittal and parasagittal slices of the frontal bone will be collected and quantified. To establish temporal trends neighboring Early and Late Pleistocene frontal bones will be quantified. Geographic variation will also be ascertained in twenty modern humans from each of nine populations coincident with the fossils. Analysis of the hypotheses will clarify how features of the frontal bone are interrelated as character complexes and how these characters reflect potential sources of variation such as gender and size. This research will contribute to more informed inferences about hominid evolution in the Middle Pleistocene.