Fatores ecológicos e evolucionários na diversificação morfológica dentária entre humanos modernos do sul da América do Sul

Ecological and evolutionary factors in dental morphological diversification among modern human populations from southern South America

Valeria Bernal1,*, S. Ivan Perez1, Paula N. Gonzalez1 and José Alexandre Felizola Diniz-Filho2

- Author Affiliations

1División Antropología, Museo de La Plata, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Paseo del Bosque s/n 1900, La Plata, Argentina

2Departamento de Ecologia, ICB, Universidade Federal de Goiás, CP 131, 74001-970, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil

*Author for correspondence (bernal.valeria@gmail.com).

Abstract

The knowledge of processes involved in morphological variation requires the integrated analysis of evolutionary and ecological factors. Here, we investigate the factors responsible for dental variation among human populations from southern South America. The aim of this work is to test the correspondence of dental size and shape variation with geographical, molecular (i.e. mtDNA) and ecological (i.e. climate, diet and food preparation) variables employing comparative phylogenetic methods, which have not previously been extensively applied at a within-species level. The results of the Procrustes analysis show a significant association of shape variables with molecular distance and geography, whereas dental size is not associated with molecular or geographical distances among groups. Phylogenetic generalized least-squares analysis, which takes into account the evolutionary autocorrelation among populations, shows a significant relationship between dental size variation and diet, while temperature and pottery do not correspond with dental size or shape. Specifically, groups with diets rich in carbohydrates, as well as the maritime hunter-gatherers, have the smallest teeth. In summary, our results support ecological factors as the dominant factor on dental size diversification in this region, while evolutionary relationships account for variation in dental shape.

dental size and shape phylogenetic comparative method temperature diet pottery
Footnotes

Received October 7, 2009.
Accepted November 12, 2009.
© 2009 The Royal Society

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