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Craniofacial sexual dimorphism patterns and allometry among extant hominids
Craniofacial sexual dimorphism in primates varies in both magnitude and pattern among species. In the past two decades, there has been an increasing emphasis in exploring the correlations of these patterns with taxonomy and the variation in patterns within and among the craniofacial regions. Scrutin...
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Published in: | Annals of anatomy 2004-12, Vol.186 (5), p.471-478 |
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Main Authors: | , , , , |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Citations: | Items that this one cites Items that cite this one |
Online Access: | Get full text |
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Summary: | Craniofacial sexual dimorphism in primates varies in both magnitude and pattern among species. In the past two decades, there has been an increasing emphasis in exploring the correlations of these patterns with taxonomy and the variation in patterns within and among the craniofacial regions.
Scrutinising these relationships for hominids, we decompose the craniofacial morphology in five taxa:
Homo sapiens, Pan paniscus, Pan troglodytes, Gorilla gorilla and
Pongo pygmaeus. 3D coordinates of 35 traditional landmarks and 61 semilandmarks, covering five ridge curves, are measured for each of 268 adult and sub-adult specimens and analysed using geometric morphometric methods.
A multivariate analysis in size-shape space shows that ontogenetic scaling contributes to the development of sexual dimorphism in all five taxa, but to a varying extent. In absolute as well as in relative terms
P. pygmaeus shows the greatest allometric component, followed by
G. gorilla. Homo is intermediate, while in
Pan the
non-allometric constituent part contributes a large fraction to the actual sexual dimorphism, most markedly in the pygmy chimpanzee. An eigendecomposition of the five vectors of sexual dimorphism reveals two dimensions independent of allometry. One separates orang-utan sexual dimorphism from the African apes and
Homo, and the other differentiates between the great apes and
Homo with
Pan mediating.
We discuss these patterns and speculate on their use as characters for taxonomic analysis in the fossil record. |
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ISSN: | 0940-9602 1618-0402 |
DOI: | 10.1016/S0940-9602(04)80086-4 |