Dissertation Research: Another unique (sub) species? The Distribution of Morphological Variation Within and Among Species and the Pleistocene Hominid Fossil Record

论文研究：另一个独特的（亚）物种？

• 批准号: 9816223
• 负责人: Eric Delson
• 金额: $ 1.17万
• 依托单位: Research Foundation Of The City University Of New York (Lehman)
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-02-01 至 2000-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9816223&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Another; unique; sub

The systematic position of the extinct human group known as the Neanderthals is a question which lies at the core of a major current paleoanthropological debate on modern human origins. Are these early people members of a species distinct from our own. Homo sapiens, or are they a subspecies or even a "race" of the sane species as living people? On order to approuch as answer to this longtime controversy, in the course of this research the PI will develop models of variation in cranial morphology within and between species. These models will be based on living primates, including geographic populations of modern humans, as well as geographic populations and species of chimpanzes, baboons and macaques. They should shed light on how morphological varitions is distributed at different hierarchical levels both within and among species. The measures of human populations from Western Eurasia and modern humans from the same geographic range, with the purpose of resolving the problems of the taxonomic position of Neanderthals and earlier European fossils human groups within the genus Homo. The temporal and occipital bones, where many proposed specialized neanderthal traits are located, will be studied quantitatively with the help of a three-dimensional digitizing system. Data will be collected in the form of three dimensional landmark and ridge curves coordinates and will be analyzed using an array of multivariate statistical techniques. The proposed Neanderthal traits will be evaluated for their distribution and variability in the fossil groups studie, as well as in recent humans. Predictive hypotheses about the taxonomic rank of Neanderthals and the earlier fossil human populations of Europe, as well as hypotheses about the relationships between these fossil group and modern Europeans, will be tested based on the models of variation.

被称为尼安德特人的灭绝人类群体的系统地位是当前关于现代人类起源的古人类学主要争论的核心问题。这些早期人类是否属于与我们不同的物种？智人，或者他们是作为活着的人的理智物种的一个亚种，甚至是一个“种族”？为了回答这一长期争议，在这项研究过程中，PI 将开发物种内部和物种之间颅骨形态变异的模型。这些模型将基于活体灵长类动物，包括现代人类的地理种群，以及黑猩猩、狒狒和猕猴的地理种群和物种。它们应该揭示形态变异如何在物种内部和物种之间的不同层次上分布。对来自欧亚大陆西部的人类和来自同一地理范围的现代人类进行测量，目的是解决尼安德特人和早期欧洲化石人类群体在人属内的分类地位问题。颞骨和枕骨是许多被提出的尼安德特人特化特征所在的地方，将在三维数字化系统的帮助下进行定量研究。数据将以三维地标和山脊曲线坐标的形式收集，并使用一系列多元统计技术进行分析。拟议的尼安德特人特征将在化石群体研究以及近代人类中评估其分布和变异性。关于尼安德特人和欧洲早期化石人类种群的分类等级的预测假设，以及关于这些化石群体与现代欧洲人之间关系的假设，将基于变异模型进行测试。