Is the middle cranial fossa a reliable predictor of temporal lobe volume in extant and fossil anthropoids?

Abstract Objectives We investigate the suitability of middle cranial fossa (MCF) size as a proxy for temporal lobe volume (TLV), examining the strength of the association between TLV and MCF metrics and assess the reliability predicting TLV in fossil anthropoids. The temporal lobe of the primate brain is a multimodal association cortex involved in long‐term memory, auditory, and visual processing with unique specializations in modern humans for language comprehension. The MCF is the bony counterpart...

American Journal of Physical Anthropology

Wed Apr 01, 2020 21:09

Do dental nonmetric traits actually work as proxies for neutral genomic data? Some answers from continental‐ and global‐level analyses

Abstract Objectives Crown and root traits, like those in the Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System (ASUDAS), are seemingly useful as genetic proxies. However, recent studies report mixed results concerning their heritability, and ability to assess variation to the level of genomic data. The aim is to test further if such traits can approximate genetic relatedness, among continental and global samples. Materials and Methods First, for 12 African populations, Mantel correlations...

American Journal of Physical Anthropology

Wed Apr 01, 2020 15:36