Original scientific paper
Shape Analysis of the Mid-Sagittal Craniogram in Some European Middle and Upper-Paleolithic Adult and Subadult Crania
Eligio Vacca
Rosalia Ciraci
Vittorio Pesce Delfino
Abstract
In order to evaluate the lateral shape contour of the Neanderthal cranium, the midsagittal profiles (glabella-opisthocranion) in adult and subadult Neanderthal remains were examined and compared with those of other specimens of fossil Homo. Size normalized boundaries were digitally acquired as ordered series of coordinates; the series of the distances from the glabella opisthocranion axis, was decomposed in Fourier polynomials; the extracted amplitudes and phase angles were used as variables to carry out multivariate discriminant analysis (PCA). The first and the second components accounted for 70% of the total variance. Neanderthal and European Upper Paleolithic subadults differ from adults of their respective groups: the subadult Homo sapiens are more similar to the adult, as the element characterizing the group is constituted by a steep craniogram with a noticeable equilibrium between the anterior and posterior district. In Neanderthal subadults, the adult model seems partially delineated and the mature cranial architecture is reached trough a phase of local allometric differentiation.
Keywords
paleoanthropology; subadult Neanderthals; analytic morphometry
Hrčak ID:
4892
URI
Publication date:
15.6.2004.
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