Morphometrics and hominoid phylogeny: Support for a chimpanzee–human clade and differentiation among great ape subspecies
- *Institute of Human Origins, †Department of Anthropology, and ¶Barrett Honors College, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287; and ‡Department of Anthropology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
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Edited by David Pilbeam, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and approved January 7, 2004 (received for review September 27, 2003)
Abstract
Taxonomic and phylogenetic analyses of great apes and humans have identified two potential areas of conflict between molecular and morphological data: phylogenetic relationships among living species and differentiation of great ape subspecies. Here we address these problems by using morphometric data. Three-dimensional landmark data from the hominoid temporal bone effectively quantify the shape of a complex element of the skull. Phylogenetic analysis using distance-based methods corroborates the molecular consensus on African ape and human phylogeny, strongly supporting a Pan–Homo clade. Phenetic differentiation of great ape subspecies is pronounced, as suggested previously by mitochondrial DNA and some morphological studies. These results show that the hominoid temporal bone contains a strong phylogenetic signal and reveal the potential for geometric morphometric analysis to shed light on phylogenetic relationships.
Footnotes
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↵ § To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Department of Anthropology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom. E-mail: c.lockwood{at}ucl.ac.uk.
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This paper was submitted directly (Track II) to the PNAS office.
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Abbreviations: LS, least squares; NJ, neighbor joining.
- Copyright © 2004, The National Academy of Sciences
