ORCID Profile
0000-0002-3848-1765
Current Organisation
Australian National University
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Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2015
DOI: 10.1016/J.JHEVOL.2015.06.012
Abstract: In 2004, an analysis by Lockwood and colleagues of hard-tissue morphology, using geometric morphometrics on the temporal bone, succeeded in recovering the correct phylogeny of living hominids without resorting to potentially problematic methods for transforming continuous shape variables into meristic characters. That work has increased hope that by using modern analytical methods and phylogenetically informative anatomical data we might one day be able to accurately infer the relationships of hominins, including the closest extinct relatives of modern humans. In the present study, using 3D virtually generated models of the hominid temporal bone and a larger suite of geometric morphometric and comparative techniques, we have re-examined the evidence for a Pan-Homo clade. Despite differences in s les, as well as the type of raw data, the effect of measurement error (and especially landmark digitization by a different operator), but also a broader perspective brought in by our erse set of approaches, our reanalysis largely supports Lockwood and colleagues' original results. However, by focusing not only mainly on shape (as in the original 2004 analysis) but also on size and 'size-corrected' (non-allometric) shape, we demonstrate that the strong phylogenetic signal in the temporal bone is largely related to similarities in size. Thus, with this study, we are not suggesting the use of a single 'character', such as size, for phylogenetic inference, but we do challenge the common view that shape, with its highly complex and multivariate nature, is necessarily more phylogenetically informative than size and that actually size and size-related shape variation (i.e., allometry) confound phylogenetic inference based on morphology. This perspective may in fact be less generalizable than often believed. Thus, while we confirm the original findings by Lockwood et al., we provide a deep reinterpretation of their nature and potential implications for hominid phylogenetics and we show how crucial it is not to overlook size in geometric morphometric analyses.
Publisher: The Australian National University
Date: 2015
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-06-2023
DOI: 10.1007/S10914-023-09664-6
Abstract: Changes to the environmental landscapes from the Eocene to Holocene have influenced the evolution of Cercopithecoidea from arboreal origins in wet, forested regions in the Early Oligocene Fayum to semi-terrestrial lifestyles in drier Neogene landscapes and social systems of larger group living. These eco-behavioural transitions likely accompanied changes in behaviour, brain function, and associated skull morphology. The temporal lobe of the brain, an association cortex, is in close proximity to the middle cranial fossa (MCF) allowing prediction of temporal lobe volume (TLV) and investigation of cerebral reorganisation. We used micro-computed tomography (µCT) cranial scans (n = 135) generated into 3D virtual crania with seven MCF metrics predicting TLV from a multiple regression of 11 extant anthropoid taxa. We studied eight extinct taxa Proteopithecus sylviae and Catopithecus browni from the Late Eocene, Early Oligocene Apidium phiomense , Parapithecus grangeri and Aegyptopithecus zeuxis , Middle Miocene Victoriapithecus macinnesi , Pliocene Dinopithecus ingens , Pleistocene Papio angusticeps , and extant cercopithecines Cercocebus atys, Macaca mulatta and Papio anubis . PGLS regressions examined relative TLV to brain size between extinct and extant taxa. We tested differences in slopes and intercepts between extinct and extant cercopithecoids with statistically significant differences in slopes but not the intercepts, with stem-anthropoids having relative smaller TLV for brain size compared to extant cercopithecoids. Potential drivers for temporal lobe evolution include paleoenvironmental shifts from Eocene tropical rainforests to Plio-Pleistocene savannas. Socio-behavioural implications include change from arboreal to semi-terrestrial lifestyles, higher visual acuity, larger group sizes and greater cognitive complexity.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2021
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-02-2023
DOI: 10.1002/AJPA.24712
Abstract: Two decades ago, Rilling and Seligman, hereafter abbreviated to RAS Study, suggested modern humans had relatively larger temporal lobes for brain size compared to other anthropoids. Despite many subsequent studies drawing conclusions about the evolutionary implications for the emergence of unique cerebral specializations in Homo sapiens , no re‐assessment has occurred using updated methodologies. We reassessed the association between right temporal lobe volume (TLV) and right hemisphere volume (HV) in the anthropoid brain. In a s le compiled de novo by us, T1‐weighted in vivo Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans of 11 extant anthropoid species were calculated by‐voxel from the MRI and the raw data from RAS Study directly compared to our s le. Phylogenetic Generalized Least‐Squares (PGLS) regression and trait‐mapping using Blomberg's K (kappa) tested the correlation between HV and TLV accounting for anthropoid phylogeny, while bootstrapped PGLS regressions tested difference in slopes and intercepts between monkey and ape subs les. PGLS regressions indicated statistically significant correlations ( r 2 0.99 p ≤ 0.0001) between TLV and HV with moderate influence from phylogeny ( K ≤ 0.42). Bootstrapped PGLS regression did not show statistically significant differences in slopes between monkeys and apes but did for intercepts. In our s le, human TLV was not larger than expected for anthropoids. Updated imaging, increased s le size and advanced statistical analyses did not find statistically significant results that modern humans possessed a disproportionately large temporal lobe volume compared to the general anthropoid trend. This has important implications for human and non‐human primate brain evolution.
Publisher: Brill
Date: 14-02-2018
DOI: 10.1159/000488668
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-2020
DOI: 10.1002/AJPA.24053
No related grants have been discovered for Alannah Pearson.