Open AccessCommon patterns of facial ontogeny in the hominid lineage
Author(s) -
Rogers Ackermann Rebecca,
Krovitz Gail E.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
the anatomical record
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1097-0185
pISSN - 0003-276X
DOI - 10.1002/ar.10119
Subject(s) - neanderthal , ontogeny , lineage (genetic) , biology , evolutionary biology , hominidae , australopithecus , human evolution , juvenile , biological evolution , ecology , geography , biochemistry , genetics , archaeology , gene
Recent evaluation of Neanderthal and modern human ontogeny suggests that taxon‐specific features arose very early in development in both lineages, with early, possibly prenatal, morphological divergence followed by parallel postnatal developmental patterns. Here we use morphometric techniques to compare hominoid facial growth patterns, and show that this developmental phenomenon is, in fact, not unique to comparisons between Neanderthals and modern humans but extends to Australopithecus africanus and to the hominoid lineage more broadly. This finding suggests that a common pattern of juvenile facial development may be more widespread and that the roots of ontogenetically early developmental differentiation are deep—perhaps predating the ape/human split of 6+ million years ago. Anat Rec (New Anat) 269:142–147, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.