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Analysis of the human osseous nasal shape—population differences and sexual dimorphism
Author(s) -
Schlager Stefan,
Rüdell Alexandra
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/ajpa.22749
Subject(s) - sexual dimorphism , crania , sexing , population , biology , anatomy , asymmetry , fluctuating asymmetry , evolutionary biology , zoology , demography , physics , quantum mechanics , sociology
Objectives In this study, the shape of the outer osseous nose in a German and a Chinese sample is analyzed using a dense set of semi‐landmarks. Shape differences related to population and sex as well as directional and fluctuating asymmetry were statistically evaluated and also visualized. Materials and Methods Shape differences in the bony nose were investigated between a large sample of CT scans of German (140 ♀, 127 ♂) and Chinese (135 ♀, 132 ♂) crania. We used semi‐automatic methods to represent the shape of this region as a dense point‐cloud, consisting of 370 three‐dimensional bilateral coordinates. Both the symmetric and asymmetric modes of shape variation were addressed. Results Strong differences in nasal shape were found between the two populations, while sex was found to play a minor role in explaining the observed shape variation. The expression of sexual dimorphism was similar in both populations. Differences attributed to population affinity and to sexual dimorphism were both found to affect the shape of the ossa nasalia and the projection of the spina nasalis . The correlation with population/sex was weak for directional asymmetry, but strong for fluctuating asymmetry. The nasal region is more asymmetric in Germans than in Chinese, with males displaying more asymmetry than females in both populations. Discussion While the bony nose is well suited for predicting population affinity, regarding the populations under investigation, its value for sexing unknown individuals is rather moderate. The similar expression of sexual dimorphism in those otherwise very dissimilar populations indicates common factors responsible for these differences. Am J Phys Anthropol 157:571–581, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.