Basicranial ontogeny comparison in Pan troglodytes and Homo sapiens and its use for developmental stage definition of KNM‐ER 42700

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to develop a comparative basis for assessing the developmental stage of KNM-ER 42700 based on the ontogenetic pattern of the ectocranial surface of the basicranium in modern humans and chimpanzees.Materials and methods: A total of 33 landmarks were collected from an ontogenetic sample of modern humans (80), chimpanzees (51), and 12 individuals classified as Homo erectus s.l. Ontogenetic trajectories were analyzed, and common aspects were extracted for the purpose of discriminating age groups. A regression of size on the extracted shape variables was used to investigate common ontogenetic allometry.

Exploring the complexity of African populations variability with Machine Learning

“…The idea is to identify a ML data analysis workflow, starting from data visualization up to supervised and unsupervised classification, supporting the work of anthropologists to identify sex and ancestry from human cranial remains. Recent works support our vision, highlighting the importance to introduce ML in Anthropology [20]- [24].…”

Mugharet el'Aliya: Affinities of an enigmatic north African Aterian maxillary fragment

“…The correlation between the main PCs and CAC was tested via Pearson correlation tests and CAC scores and log CS were plotted against each other to visualize their relationship. Overall shapes between individuals were compared based on Procrustes Distances (PD) of the entire shape captured in the Procrustes superimposed vertex coordinates of the dataset (e.g., Harvati, 2009; Mori & Harvati, 2019). Summary statistics were performed for the sample mean, standard deviation (s.d.…”

“…Developmental age groups were based on dental eruption stages (e.g., Freidline et al, 2012; Mori & Harvati, 2019; Robson & Wood, 2008; Smith, 1989; Zihlman et al, 2004). We used the eruption status of the permanent maxillary dentition to assign each individual to one of four dental age groups: (3) complete deciduous dentition; (4) erupted first molar; (5) erupted second molar; and (6) adult with erupted third molar.…”

“…Shape changes along PCs illustrated as surfaces at ±2 sd and direct comparison of extreme surfaces at maximum (red) and minimum (gray). Dental age groups of all individuals and abbreviations of all fossil individuals are listed in Table 1 (PD) of the entire shape captured in the Procrustes superimposed vertex coordinates of the dataset (e.g., Harvati, 2009;Mori & Harvati, 2019). Summary statistics were performed for the sample mean, standard deviation (s.d.…”

Morphological evolution of the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) mandibular molars: coordinated size and shape changes through the Scladina Cave chronostratigraphy

“…To this aim, we employed PTA which has been previously used to statistically test trajectories from mammalian ontogeny (Terhune et al, 2018;Durão et al, 2019;Mori and Harvati, 2019) to evolutionary trends (Martinez et al, 2018). PTA provides evolutionary trajectories, which have orientation, magnitude and shape attributes and therefore allow detailed insights into variation and divergence within and among stratigraphic contexts (Adams and Collyer, 2009).…”