Craniometric similarities within and between human populations in comparison with neutral genetic data

Human Biology
André Strauss, Mark Hubbe

Abstract

The statement that pairs of individuals from different populations are often more genetically similar than pairs from the same population is a widespread idea inside and outside the scientific community. Witherspoon et al. ["Genetic similarities within and between human populations," Genetics 176:351-359 (2007)] proposed an index called the dissimilarity fraction (omega) to access in a quantitative way the validity of this statement for genetic systems. Witherspoon demonstrated that, as the number of loci increases, omega decreases to a point where, when enough sampling is available, the statement is false. In this study, we applied the dissimilarity fraction to Howells's craniometric database to establish whether or not similar results are obtained for cranial morphological traits. Although in genetic studies thousands of loci are available, Howells's database provides no more than 55 metric traits, making the contribution of each variable important. To cope with this limitation, we developed a routine that takes this effect into consideration when calculating omega. Contrary to what was observed for the genetic data, our results show that cranial morphology asymptotically approaches a mean omega of 0.3 and therefore supports ...Continue Reading

Citations

Aug 15, 2012·Trends in Genetics : TIG·Ron PinhasiJoachim Burger
Jun 29, 2011·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel
Jun 23, 2015·The Anatomical Record : Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology·Maja ŠešeljRichard J Sherwood
Oct 19, 2016·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Pamela L Geller, Christopher M Stojanowksi
Mar 16, 2017·The Anatomical Record : Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology·Lia Betti
Mar 29, 2012·Human Biology·Ron Pinhasi, Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel
Jan 7, 2020·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Kathryn Grow AllenNoreen von Cramon-Taubadel
Jun 20, 2017·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Kathleen S Paul, Christopher M Stojanowski
Jul 28, 2017·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Kathryn Grow Allen, Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel

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