Variación Craneofacial de los Primeros Habitantes de las Pampas Argentinas: Implicancias para el Poblamiento de América.

MENÉNDEZ, LUMILA; BONOMO, MARIANO; MESSINEO, PABLO G; GONZALEZ, MARIELA; POLITIS, GUSTAVO; PEREZ, SERGIO IVAN

De cómo cruzar fronteras en la ciencia. Homenaje a Héctor M. Pucciarelli.

CENPAT

Año: 2017; p. 87 - 109

Craniofacialcomparisons between the earliest and latest human skeletons of America havesuggested the existence of a complex scenario underlying the biological evolution of American populations. Particularly, this studies principally proposed migratoryprocesses -physical movement of large number of people across the space- as the main factor behind the craniofacial variation in America. At theend of 19th and the early 20th, Florentino Ameghino initiated the discussions on thehigh antiquity of humans on the extensive grasslands of the pampean region.However, only recently, the importance of Argentinean Pampas samples to discussthe evolution of American populations hadbeen revisited because of the radiocarbon dating of nine samples of human bone from seven archaeological sites excavated byAmeghino and others Argentinean researchers. Here,morphometric analyzes concerning those nine early Argentinean Pampas arepresented. The early samples were compared with Late Holocene samples.Morphometric differences in Pampas samples are pronounced. Argentinean Pampassamples present the greatest morphological variation when plot with the otherearly American samples. However, using cranial morphometric differences alone is difficult to support thehypotheses that the morphological differences between early and late Americansamples are related to migratoryor others processes. Molecular evidence from the same samples suggest continuityin the peopling. Althoughcraneometric evidence was very important to understand the human peopling anddiversification in America, new work need to consider more evidence (e.g.archaeological, molecular) all together.