Detecting interregionally diversifying natural selection on modern human cranial form by using matched molecular and morphometric data.

ABSTRACT: This comparison of morphological and neutral genetic variation in 10 human populations was designed to test a neutral hypothesis of cranial evolution in living and recent humans and to explain deviations from neutrality where detected. Overall, among-population differences in extant Homo sapiens cranial morphology are proportional to among-population differences in neutral molecular characteristics. For most of the populations studied, cranial morphology varies among regions in a manner consistent with neutral expectations. Removal of the effects of shared population history and structure by using the partial Mantel's test, however, does not remove the correlation between some aspects of cranial morphology and a measure of coldness of climate. The excess differentiation is most apparent in

SUBMITTER: Roseman CC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC516480 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature