Studies of ancient crania from northern Africa

Historical sources and archaeological data predict significant population variability in mid-Holocene northern Africa. Multivariate analyses of crania demonstrate wide variation but also suggest an indigenous craniometric pattern common to both late dynastic northern Egypt and the coastal Maghreb region. Both tropical African and European metric phenotypes, as well intermediate patterns, are found in mid-Holocene Maghreb sites. Early southern predynastic Egyptian crania show tropical African affinities, displaying craniometric trends that differ notably from the coastal northern African pattern. The various craniofacial patterns discernible in northern Africa are attributable to the agents of microevolution and migration.     

Who were the ancient Egyptians? Dental affinities among Neolithic through postdynastic peoples

Qualitative and quantitative methods are employed to describe and compare up to 36 dental morphological variants in 15 Neolithic through Roman-period Egyptian samples. Trait frequencies are determined, and phenetic affinities are calculated using the mean measure of divergence and Mahalanobis D2 statistics for discrete traits; the most important traits in generating this intersample variation are identified with correspondence analysis. Assuming that the samples are representative of the populations from which they derive, and that phenetic similarity provides an estimate of genetic relatedness, these affinities are suggestive of overall population continuity. That is, other than a few outliers exhibiting extreme frequencies of nine influential traits, the dental samples appear to be largely homogenous and can be characterized as having morphologically simple, mass-reduced teeth. These findings are contrasted with those resulting from previous skeletal and other studies, and are used to appraise the viability of five Egyptian peopling scenarios. Specifically, affinities among the 15 time-successive samples suggest that: 1) there may be a connection between Neolithic and subsequent predynastic Egyptians, 2) predynastic Badarian and Naqada peoples may be closely related, 3) the dynastic period is likely an indigenous continuation of the Naqada culture, 4) there is support for overall biological uniformity through the dynastic period, and 5) this uniformity may continue into postdynastic times.     

Quantitative studies on the arrangement of human metaphase chromosomes. IX. Arrangement of chromosomes with and without spindle apparatus

Summary The spatial relationships in human male metaphase cells treated with and without colcemide were compared with each other. The following results were obtained: (1) In normal male metaphases the overall distributions of chromosomal distances regardless of chromosome identification numbers did not show normal distribution, neither in the colcemid-free sample nor in the colcemide-treated sample. (2) In both samples larger chromosomes showed a more peripheral position, and smaller chromosomes showed a more central position. This finding was statistically significant. (3) No differences between the two samples could be observed concerning the following parameters: overall distributions of the centromere-centromere distances, distributions of the distances between the homologous chromosomes (except the small acrocentric chromosomes), rank positions of the mean distances between homologous chromosomes, and rank positions of the mean distances of the different chromosomes from the center of the mitosis (except few chromosomes). (4) Visible, but not statistically accessible, differences appeared between the two samples in respect to rank positions of the mean distances of all possible acrocentric pairing groups, rank positions of the mean distances of the homologous acrocentric chromosomes from the center of the mitosis, and distances of the X chromosome from the center of the mitosis. (5) Statistically significant differences appeared between the two samples with respect to distance distributions of the small acrocentric chromosomes and positions of the chromosomes 1, 16, 18, Y, and 21, 22 in relation to the center of the mitosis.     

Genetic diversity of Echinacea species based upon amplified fragment length polymorphism markers.

The taxonomy of Echinacea is based on morphological characters and has varied depending on the monographer. The genus consists of either nine species and four varieties or four species and eight varieties. We have used amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLP) to assess genetic diversity and phenetic relationships among nine species and three varieties of Echinacea (sensu McGregor). A total of 1086 fragments, of which approximately 90% were polymorphic among Echinacea taxa, were generated from six primer combinations. Nei and Li's genetic distance coefficient and the neighbor-joining algorithm were employed to construct a phenetic tree. Genetic distance results indicate that all Echinacea species are closely related, and the average pairwise distance between populations was approximately three times the intrapopulation distances. The topology of the neighbor-joining tree strongly supports two major clades, one containing Echinacea purpurea, Echinacea sanguinea, and Echinacea simulata and the other containing the remainder of the Echinacea taxa (sensu McGregor). The species composition within the clades differs between our AFLP data and the morphometric treatment offered by Binns and colleagues. We also discuss the suitability of AFLP in determining phylogenetic relationships.     

Unexplained findings in anthropologic study material from Egypt. Addenda to Herodotus' "Historian", Lib. II, 86-88 and Egyptian "Sparagmos"?]

The authors report on recently excavated mummified human remains from Buto and Minshat Abu Omar in the Nile Delta (Lower Egypt). There is evidence that besides the conventional mummification techniques described for example by Herodotus rather invasive methods have been applied, i.e. maceration and dissection of the soft tissue, partly followed by modelling the skeleton with a thin layer of mud. This practise remembers of certain mutilated anthropological material of predynastic origin discovered towards the end of the last century by W.M. Flinders Petrie, which additionally seems to show significant parallels to ancient Egyptian mythological and religious texts (Pyramid texts, Coffin texts, Book of the Dead, etc.). Probably the presented findings, dated between 700 B.C. and 400 A.D., must be explained as a local rebirth of an archaic but non-specific Egyptian custom, preceding the inauguration of mummification in Egypt. The main task of this paper is to introduce important new material and to ask those missions also involved in archaeological fieldwork in Egypt for paying special attention to this subject.     

Developmental perspectives on neurocranial proportions in Japan

This study employs juvenile cranial data derived from collections dating to between about 5000 years ago and the present in order to investigate how differences in cranial growth trajectories contributed to inter-group variation in cranial shape among temporally defined Japanese populations. As gene influx from the Asian mainland was insignificant after the Yayoi period (c. CE 300), differences in adult cranial shape among later assemblages from Japan are probably related to developmental adaptations to environmental change. Comparing cranial growth trajectories among groups from different time periods allows indirect testing of several hypotheses about secular changes in cranial growth, including thermoregulatory adaptation, change in levels of masticatory stress, and change in levels of physiological stress.Differences in neurocranial proportions among groups with contrasting adult cranial shapes were found to be already pronounced for the infant cohort (0-3 years of age) and actually tended to decline slightly within later age ranges; differences in mandibular shape were unremarkable early in life, but became more pronounced after infancy. Consequently, changes in chewing stress are unlikely to have been the principal factor driving inter-group differences in cranial proportions. The cranial growth pattern reconstructed from a Medieval Japanese skeletal series showed the greatest magnitude of difference from those reconstructed for other time periods. Unlike in the other groups, there was no marked decline of cephalic index with age for the Medieval series. The unusual trajectory of cranial growth evident in the Medieval sample may result from a high degree of physiological stress due to overall poor nutrition.     

Latitudinal gradients in the phenetic diversity of New World bat communities

Although the examination of latitudinal gradients of species richness is common, little attention has been devoted to other components of biodiversity such as phenetic diversity. Because the phenotype reflects aspects of an organism's environment, ecological relationships and evolutionary history, measures of phenetic diversity likely provide complimentary information to that of species richness, and may provide unique insights for understanding the mechanistic basis to patterns of biodiversity. Herein, we evaluate latitudinal gradients in the phenetic diversity of 32 New World bat communities. Seven morphological characters were used to estimate phenotypic variation among bat species within local communities. Principal components analysis decomposed this variation into axes of size and shape. Three measures of phenetic diversity were calculated separately for size and for shape axes. The range of species scores on a particular axis described the amount of phenetic variation encompassed by species in a community. The standard deviation of minimum spanning‐tree segment lengths described uniformity of species. Average nearest‐neighbor distances described local packing. We separately regressed these six measures on local species richness and latitude separately. Variation in species richness accounted for a significant amount of variation in each measure of phenetic diversity. Latitude also accounted for significant variation in phenetic diversity except for the standard deviation of minimum‐spanning tree segment lengths and the average nearest‐neighbor distance on the shape axis. More importantly, gradients in phenetic diversity were significantly different than would be expected as a consequence of latitudinal gradients in species richness. Nonetheless, when variation among communities regarding the richness and composition of their regional faunas was taken into consideration, differences between empirical and simulated gradients were nonsignificant. Thus, factors that determine the composition of regional faunas have a great impact on the phenetic diversity of communities and ultimately the latitudinal gradient in biodiversity.     

Questions of khoesan continuity: Dental affinities among the indigenous holocene peoples of South Africa

The present report follows up on the findings of previous research, including recent bioarchaeological study of well‐dated Khoesan skeletal remains, that posits long term biological continuity among the indigenous peoples of South Africa after the Pleistocene. The Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System was used to record key crown, root, and intraoral osseous nonmetric traits in six early‐through‐late Holocene samples from the Cape coasts. Based on these data, phenetic affinities and an identification of traits most important in driving intersample variation were determined using principal components analysis and the mean measure of divergence distance statistic. To expand biological affinity comparisons into more recent times, and thus preliminarily assess the dental impact of disproportionate non‐Khoesan gene flow into local peoples, dental data from historic Khoekhoe and San were also included. Results from the prehistoric comparisons are supportive of population continuity, though a sample from Matjes River Rockshelter exhibits slight phenetic distance from other early samples. This and some insignificant regional divergence among these coastal samples may be related to environmental and cultural factors that drove low‐level reproductive isolation. Finally, a close affinity of historic San to all samples, and a significant difference of Khoekhoe from most early samples is reflective of documented population history following immigration of Bantu‐speakers and, later, Europeans into South Africa. Am J Phys Anthropol 155:33–44, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Anthropometric variation and the genetic structure of the Jirels of Nepal

Anthropometric measurements (head length, head breadth, bizygomatic diameter, minimum frontal diameter, head circumference, and stature) for 526 adult Jirels are utilized to establish the pattern of phenotypic relationships between seven villages in eastern Nepal. An analytical framework is provided that justifies the interpretation of biological distances as minimum genetic distances. Using this approach, estimates of the minimum pairwise genetic distances between villages and the minimum FST for the population are derived from the purely phenotypic data. The FST obtained in this way is consistent with results obtained from other data available for this population, confirming the utility of phenetic analysis of quantitative traits for elucidating genetic structure.     

Body mass index and chronic energy deficiency of adult males of Central Indian populations

Data on body weight, height, and sitting height from 11,496 adult males, age 18-62 years, belonging to 38 different populations of five major social groups (scheduled tribes, scheduled castes, "other backward castes," general castes, and Muslims) of Central India were taken for our analysis to assess the nutritional status of these groups. Cormic index and body mass index (BMI) were computed, and an analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out among different populations as well as among social groups separately on Cormic index and BMI. Shape, size, and generalized distances among the different social groups were computed and dendrograms were drawn. The level of malnutrition is the lowest among the general castes. The opposite is the case with the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Comparison of the coefficient of variation shows that there is variation in weight and BMI but that there is no marked variation in the other anthropometric variables. The ANOVA on Cormic index and BMI suggests that the people within a population are more homogeneous than the people between populations. There is a positive but statistically insignificant correlation between Cormic index and BMI. The five social groups differ more in size distance than in shape distance. According to the dendrogram of generalized distance values, the Muslims and the general castes can be grouped into one cluster and the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and other backward castes can be grouped into another cluster.     

Genetic relationships of Europeans, Asians and Africans and the origin of modern Homo sapiens

To study the evolutionary relationships of the three major groups of humans, Europeans, Asians and Africans, the genetic distances between them were computed by using 4 different sets of genetic loci (84 protein loci, 33 blood group loci, 8 HLA and immunoglobulin loci, and 61 DNA markers). The results obtained indicate that the overall genetic distance between Europeans and Asians is significantly lower than that between Europeans and Africans of that between Asians and Africans and support the hypothesis of an African origin of modern humans. This seems to be the first study to establish the evolutionary relationships of the three major groups of humans at a statistically significant level.     

Different factors that modify anti-predator behaviour in guanacos (Lama guanicoe)

Animals optimize the trade-off between the cost of not fleeing and the benefits of staying because the factors that influence flight decisions and the disturbance level of a particular stimulus can vary both spatially and temporally. Different factors (human impact and habitat characteristics) likely to modify anti-predator behaviour in different types of guanaco social groups were analysed. We found that group size was conditioned by high poaching, vehicle traffic, predation risk and vegetation density. Solitary adult males showed shorter alert and flight initiation distances than bachelor and mixed groups. Alert distance was greater during the summer season, and assessment times were shorter when young were present in the groups. In high-predation-risk environments, guanacos detected threats at greater distances and flight initiation distance was longer. Alert distances were shorter on steeper sloped hills and assessment times were shorter in areas with irregular topography than on flat sites. In high traffic areas, flight initiation distance was longer and assessment times were shorter. And in areas with low poaching intensity, assessment times were greater than in those with high poaching levels. Therefore, guanacos may be able to evaluate a true threat. Social group and anti-predator responses were conditioned by habitat characteristics and human impact. We consider that plasticity of responses could be key to the survival of guanacos.     

我国草鱼野生群体D-Loop序列遗传变异分析

利用线粒体DNA的D-Loop区序列, 对来自长江水系(邗江、吴江、九江、石首、木洞和万州)、珠江水系(肇庆)和黑龙江水系(嫩江)的8个草鱼野生群体开展了遗传变异分析。在424尾鱼中检测到34个变异位点, 34个单倍型, 单倍型多样性介于0.4740.708。群体间Kimura双参数遗传距离介于0.00200.0049。长江下游3个群体间遗传距离最近, 遗传分化不显著(P0.05); 肇庆群体与长江上游3个群体遗传距离较近, 与九江群体遗传分化不显著(P0.05); 嫩江群体与长江上游2个群体遗传距离较近, 与万州群体遗传分化不显著(P0.05)。遗传距离与地理距离存在极显著正相关(R=0.61, P0.01)。分子方差分析显示, 不同流域间遗传变异占总变异26.24%, 差异极显著(P0.01)。34个单倍型分为2个分支, 分化极显著(FST=0.644, P0.01), 推测分化时间为第四纪更新世纪晚期。       

Concordance of cranial and dental morphological traits and evidence for endogamy in ancient Egypt

A biological affinities study based on frequencies of cranial nonmetric traits in skeletal samples from three cemeteries at predynastic Naqada, Egypt, confirms the results of a recent nonmetric dental morphological analysis. Both cranial and dental traits analyses indicate that the individuals buried in a cemetery characterized archaeologically as high status are significantly different from individuals buried in two other, apparently nonelite cemeteries and that the nonelite samples are not significantly different from each other. A comparison with neighbouring Nile Valley skeletal samples suggests that the high status cemetery represents an endogamous ruling or elite segment of the local population at Naqada, which is more closely related to populations in northern Nubia than to neighbouring populations in southern Egypt. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Molecular genetic divergence of orang utan (Pongo pygmaeus) subspecies based on isozyme and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis

The orang utan (Pongo pygmaeus), as currently recognized, includes two geographically separated subspecies: Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus, which resides on Borneo, and P. p. abelii, which inhabits Sumatra. At present, there is no known route of gene flow between the two populations except through captive individuals which have been released back into the wild over the last several decades. The two subspecies are differentiated by morphological and behavioral characters, and they can be distinguished by a subspecies specific pericentric chromosomal inversion. Nei-genetic distances were estimated between orang utan subspecies, gorilla, chimpanzee and humans using 44 isozyme loci and using 458 soluble fibroblast proteins which were resolved by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Phenetic analysis of both data sets supports the following conclusions: the orang utan subspecies distances are approximately 10 times closer to each other than they are to the African apes, and the orang utan subspecies are approximately as divergent as are the two chimpanzee species. Comparison of the genetic distances to genetic distance estimates done in the same laboratory under identical conditions reveals that the distance between Bornean vs. Sumatran orang utans is 5-10 times the distance measured between several pairs of subspecies including lions, cheetahs, and tigers. Near species level molecular genetic distances between orang utan subspecies would support the separate management of Bornean and Sumatran orang utans as evolutionary significant units (Ryder 1987). Evolutionary topologies were constructed from the distance data using both cladistic and phenetic methods. The majority of resulting trees affirmed previous molecular evolutionary studies that indicated that man and chimpanzee diverged from a common ancestor subsequent to the divergence of gorilla from the common ancestor.     

On the estimation of the influence of the character of insect pollinators movements on the pollen transfer dynamics

The pattern of pollinator movements determines the dynamics of the pollen transfer between zoophilic plants. The structure of plant populations depends on this aspect of the pollinator foraging behavior. A new method for the estimation of the rate of moving away from an object was used for a more precise determination of the distance at which pollinators transfer pollen. The method is based on the measuring of distances covered by pollinators per several flights. The highest rate was found in hoverflies (Diptera, Syrphidae). Butterflies (Pieris brassicae) play an insignificant role in long-distance pollen transfers due to their circular movements.     

II.- The Lore of the Hoopoe (Upupa epops L.)

T he earliest appearance of the Hoopoe in history is a painting of the bird perching with other species on the št -bush ( Acacia nilotica Del.). This painting is on the walls of the tomb of Knumhotpe at Beni Hasan, Egypt, and dates from the XIIth Dynasty ( circa 1900 B.C.). A fine coloured drawing of this bird by Howard Carter has been published by the Egypt Exploration Society¹. The Egyptian artist has rendered his subject well: it is fairly true to nature except that the tail is represented as forking. I have searched in vain for further pictures of this striking bird in other Egyptian paintings, and the supposed mention of it in a papyrus of the reign of Sety II ( c. 1205 B.C.) cannot be maintained. In this document the writer complains that his dates will not ripen, for they are attacked by three species of birds, in the morning, at noon and at eventide respectively. The late Sir Gaston Maspero identified the first of these birds with the Hoopoe, but as the bird is not frugivorous his identification cannot stand¹.     

Global patterns of environmental synchrony and the Moran effect

There is considerable debate over the relative importance of dispersal and environmental disturbances (the Moran effect) as causes of spatial synchrony in fluctuations of animal populations. If environmental factors generally exhibit high levels of spatial autocorrelation, they may be playing a more important role in synchronizing animal populations than sometimes recognized. Here I examine this issue by analyzing spatial autocorrelation in annual rainfall and mean annual temperatures from sites throughout the world using the database maintained by the Global Historical Climatology Network. Both annual precipitation and mean annual temperatures exhibit high synchrony declining with distance and are statistically significant over large distance, often on a continental scale. In general, synchrony was slightly higher in annual precipitation at short distances, but greater in mean annual temperatures at long distances. No latitudinal gradient in synchrony of either variable was detected. The high overall synchrony observed in these environmental variables combined with a pattern of decline with distance similar to that observed in many animal populations suggest that the Moran effect can potentially play an important role in driving synchrony in a wide variety of ecological phenomena regardless of scale.     

Refinement of the thrombin-bound structure of a hirudin peptide by a restrained electrostatically driven Monte Carlo method.

Energy refinement of the structure of a linear peptide, hirudin56-65, bound to thrombin was carried out using a conformational search method in combination with restrained minimization. Five conformations originated from nmr data and distance geometry calculations having a similar global folding pattern but quite different backbone conformations were used as the starting structures. As a result of this approach, a series of low-energy conformations compatible with a set of upper and lower bounds of interproton distances determined from transferred nuclear Overhauser effects were found. A comparison among the lowest energy conformations of each run showed that the combination of energy refinement plus distance constraints led to a very well-defined structure for both the backbone and the side chains of the last 7 residues of the polypeptide. Furthermore, the low-energy conformations generated with this technique contain a segment of 3(10)-helix involving the last 5 residues at the COOH terminal end.     

Meaning of biodistance statistics: a test case using adult monozygotic twins

Anthropometry, historically one of the primary research techniques in physical anthropology, has been widely utilized in biodistance studies. The complex genetic and environmental interaction that governs the expression of anthropometric dimensions, together with concerns over measurement error, have sometimes clouded the interpretation of biodistances based upon anthropometry. In this study, 51 pairs of adult monozygotic twins were analysed using discriminant analysis and Mahalanobis' generalized distance. Both male and female twins, grouped by first- versus second-born, displayed very small, statistically insignificant distances between groups. When literature estimates of intra-observer measurement errors were used as a frame of reference, the average absolute differences between the twin pairs were approximately twice the size of the measurement error estimates. The results of this study suggest that, first, the environmental effect upon the genetically influenced traits measured by anthropometry is not large enough to bring about significant multivariate differences between identical twin pairs; and, second, biodistance studies based upon anthropometry can be reliable so long as measurement error is minimized.