Distance from Africa, not climate, explains within-population phenotypic diversity in humans.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Betti L
PROVIDER: S-EPMC2664379 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Mar
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Distance from Africa, not climate, explains within-population phenotypic diversity in humans.
Betti Lia L Balloux François F Amos William W Hanihara Tsunehiko T Manica Andrea A
Proceedings. Biological sciences 20090301 1658
The relative importance of ancient demography and climate in determining worldwide patterns of human within-population phenotypic diversity is still open to debate. Several morphometric traits have been argued to be under selection by climatic factors, but it is unclear whether climate affects the global decline in morphological diversity with increasing geographical distance from sub-Saharan Africa. Using a large database of male and female skull measurements, we apply an explicit framework to ...[more]
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