Evaluation of the environmental component of the phenotypic variance in prehistoric populations

VARELA, H.H.; COCILOVO, J.A.

HOMO

Urban & Fischer Verlag/Elsevier

Lugar: Mainz; Año: 1999 vol. 50 p. 46 - 53

0018-442X

The knowledge of the special environmental variance for a set of metric traits of the skull of the prehistoric human populations allows the estimation of the upper limit of genetic variance or repeatability (correlation), as a proportion of the total phenotypic variance. For this purpose, a sample of 86 skulls of the prehistoric population of San Pedro de Atacama (Northern Chile) was employed. The same seven variables were measured on the left and right side of each skull. Moreover, reapeatability was calculated for each variables and, subsequently, a multivariate estimation was made. Results show an average reapeatability of 0.80, with a low standard error. It is observed that some traits like the minimal maxilar height are more influenced by the especial environmental. The first canonic variable proved to be the least affected by the environment. This experiment allows an approximate but significant calculation of the genetic component associated with the metric variables of the skull, a relevant piece of information for the studies of evolutionary biology in prehistoric population.