Intraspecific Variation of Cranial Morphology in Extant Hominoidea

关于物种的定义仍然没有共识，当试图对灭绝的标本进行分类时，这就成了一个更大的问题。虽然一些研究人员已经将现存分类群的形态与古物种的形态进行了比较，但对现存分类群的形态变异的了解还不够，无法估计过去种内变异的水平。这个项目将研究类人猿(人总科)头骨形状在物种内和类群之间的变异水平。利用几何形态测量技术，将从博物馆标本中收集大量类人猿头骨形状数据。这些数据将被用来确定所有类人猿物种中异速生长比例和模块化的存在，以及这如何与性别二型性相互作用。此外，还将调查各种头骨特征的进化速度，以确定所有形状变化是一起进化的，还是以不同的速度进化的。人们希望，这种对类人族头骨形态的深入研究将是利用现存物种的形态来准确预测灭绝物种的物种边界的第一步。

There is still no consensus on the definition of a species, and this becomes an even greater problem when attempting to classify extinct specimens. Though some researchers have compared the morphology of extant taxa with that of palaeospecies, not enough is known about morphological variation in living taxa to be able to make estimations about past levels of intraspecies variation. This project will examine the levels of variation in the skull shape of apes (Hominoidea), both within species and between taxa. Using geometric morphometric techniques, a large sample of ape skull shape data will be collected from museum specimens. This data will be used to determine the existence of allometric scaling and modularity in all ape species, and how this interacts with sexual dimorphism. Additionally, the evolutionary rates of change for various skull traits will be investigated in order to determine if all shape changes evolved together or at different rates. It is hoped that this in-depth investigation of hominoid skull morphology will be the first step in using extant species' morphology to make accurate predictions about species boundaries in extinct species.