Evidence of different climatic adaptation strategies in humans and non-human primates

Scientific Reports
L T BuckJay T Stock

Abstract

To understand human evolution it is critical to clarify which adaptations enabled our colonisation of novel ecological niches. For any species climate is a fundamental source of environmental stress during range expansion. Mammalian climatic adaptations include changes in size and shape reflected in skeletal dimensions and humans fit general primate ecogeographic patterns. It remains unclear however, whether there are also comparable amounts of adaptation in humans, which has implications for understanding the relative importance of biological/behavioural mechanisms in human evolution. We compare cranial variation between prehistoric human populations from throughout Japan and ecologically comparable groups of macaques. We compare amounts of intraspecific variation and covariation between cranial shape and ecological variables. Given equal rates and sufficient time for adaptation for both groups, human conservation of non-human primate adaptation should result in comparable variation and patterns of covariation in both species. In fact, we find similar amounts of intraspecific variation in both species, but no covariation between shape and climate in humans, contrasting with strong covariation in macaques. The lack of covariati...Continue Reading

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Citations

Aug 18, 2020·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Hyunwoo JungNoreen von Cramon-Taubadel
Aug 30, 2021·Journal of Human Evolution·Laura T BuckTimothy D Weaver

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Morphologika
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