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Multivariate morphometrics, quantitative genetics, and neutral theory: Developing a “modern synthesis” for primate evolutionary morphology
Author(s) -
von CramonTaubadel Noreen
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
evolutionary anthropology: issues, news, and reviews
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.401
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1520-6505
pISSN - 1060-1538
DOI - 10.1002/evan.21761
Subject(s) - morphometrics , evolutionary biology , biology , morphology (biology) , population genetics , quantitative genetics , multivariate statistics , diversification (marketing strategy) , population , conceptual framework , ecology , genetic variation , zoology , genetics , computer science , epistemology , machine learning , demography , marketing , sociology , gene , business , philosophy
Anthropologists are increasingly turning to explicit model‐bound evolutionary approaches for understanding the morphological diversification of humans and other primate lineages. Such evolutionary morphological analyses rely on three interconnected conceptual frameworks; multivariate morphometrics for quantifying similarity and differences among taxa, quantitative genetics for modeling the inheritance and evolution of morphology, and neutral theory for assessing the likelihood that taxon diversification is due to stochastic processes such as genetic drift. Importantly, neutral theory provides a framework for testing more parsimonious explanations for observed morphological differences before considering more complex adaptive scenarios. However, the consistency with which these concepts are applied varies considerably, which mirrors some of the theoretical obstacles faced during the “modern synthesis” of classical population genetics in the early 20th century. Here, each framework is reviewed and some potential stumbling blocks to the full conceptual integration of multivariate morphometrics, quantitative genetics, and neutral theory are considered.