Сomparison of cranial morphology in modern and archaeological human populations with the help of geometric morphometrics
The paper presents an attempt to apply geometric morphometrics for comparing neurocranial morphology in recent and archaeological populations of modern humans. The aim of the comparison is to resolve genetic relationships between the groups in the study, following the according claim of certain recent studies. This approach enables the comparison of complete three-dimensional morphology of studied organisms and has become very popular in palaeoanthropological literature of recent years. The sample included Mesolithic and early Neolithic groups from the European Russia and Ukraine. A modern comparative sample is represented by groups from Europe, Africa, Asia and America whose phylogenetic relationships are considered to be resolved. The raw data is collected by means of 3D surface scans of neurocrania. Landmarks and semilandmarks are subsequently marked on the surfaces. We apply several analytical techniques available for the non-parametric set of data. We receive a number of preliminary results which will be further tested in light of the investigation of the origin of mongoloid populations in Asia.