Section I. Genes and skeletons,ancient and modern

The relative value of morphometrics and non-metrical variant incidences for providing genetical information from skeletons are compared. It is concluded that non-metrical variant studies are the best method currently available for paleogenetical studies. The scientific background to non-metrical variant work is reviewed, and criticisms discussed. It is pointed out that a number of variants classified on the same skeleton screen a large number of loci, and some of these are likely to label adaptive chromosome segments, i.e. studies of non-metrical variants are capable of giving information about population dynamics as well as population differentiation.