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Developmental and Genetic Constraints on Neurocranial Globularity: Insights from Analyses of Deformed Skulls and Quantitative Genetics

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Abstract

Neurocranial globularity is one of the few derived traits defining anatomically modern humans. Variations in this trait derive from multiple and complex interactions between portions of the brain and the size and shape of the cranial base, among other factors. Given their evolutionary and functional importance, neurocranial globularity is expected to present high genetic and developmental constraints on their phenotypic expression. Here we applied two independent approaches to investigate both types of constraints. First, we assessed if patterns of morphological integration are conserved or else disrupted on a series of artificially deformed skulls in comparison to non-deformed (ND) ones. Second, after the estimation of the genetic covariance matrix for human skull shape, we explored how neurocranial globularity would respond to putative selective events disrupting the normal morphological patterns. Simulations on these deviations were explicitly set to replicate the artificial deformation patterns in order to compare developmental and genetic constraints under the same biomechanical conditions. In general terms, our results indicate that putative developmental constraints help to preserve some aspects of normal morphological integration even in the deformed skulls. Moreover, we find that the response to selection in neurocranial globularity is pervasive. In other words, induced changes in the vault generate a global response, indicating that departures from normal patterns of neurocranial globularity are genetically constrained. In summary, our combined results suggest that neurocranial globularity behaves as a highly genetic and developmental constrained trait.

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Acknowledgments

We thank to Drs. B. Hallgrímsson, K.E. Willmore and C. Rolian for inviting us to participate in this special number. Two anonymous reviewers provided insightful comments and many helpful suggestions that enhanced this paper. We are also indebted to authorities and museum’s curators of the following institutions: Webb’s Museum (University of Kentucky, Lexington, USA), Museo de La Plata (University of La Plata, La Plata, Argentina), Parish and Musealverein of Hallstatt (Hallstatt, Austria), Institut für Anatomie (Innsbruck, Austria), and Naturhistorisches Museum Wien and Österreichisches Museum für Volkskunde (Vienna, Austria) for allowing us to measure their valuable cranial collections and for their help during fieldwork. We also want to thank Torstein Sjøvold and Miquel Hernández for their help and support. Finally, we acknowledge Chris Klingenberg for making available MorphoJ. This work was supported by the Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the Universitat de Barcelona, the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia MEC-FEDER (CGL2004-00903/BTE), and the Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológia, Argentina (PICT Jóvenes 20582).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Secció d’Antropologia, Departament de Biologia Animal, Universitat de Barcelona. Av. Diagonal, 645. 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    Neus Martínez-Abadías & Mireia Esparza

  2. Centro Nacional Patagónico, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Bvd. Brown 2825, U9120ACF, Puerto Madryn, Argentina

    Carolina Paschetta, Soledad de Azevedo & Rolando González-José

Authors
  1. Neus Martínez-Abadías
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  2. Carolina Paschetta
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  3. Soledad de Azevedo
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  4. Mireia Esparza
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  5. Rolando González-José
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rolando González-José.

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Neus Martínez-Abadías and Rolando González-José contributed equally to this work.

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11692_2008_9045_MOESM2_ESM.tif

Landmarks used in the analysis of deformed and non-deformed skulls. Three-dimensional landmarks depicting facial (top), vault (center), and basal (bottom) configurations are shown separately. The interlandmark distances describing vault, facial, and basal length and width are shown as red lines (see Table S1 for definitions) (TIF 1,324 kb)

Landmarks used in the analysis of the G-matrix (TIF 612 kb)

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Martínez-Abadías, N., Paschetta, C., de Azevedo, S. et al. Developmental and Genetic Constraints on Neurocranial Globularity: Insights from Analyses of Deformed Skulls and Quantitative Genetics. Evol Biol 36, 37–56 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-008-9045-4

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