The Buffalo Human Evolutionary Morphology lab is dedicated to research that combines the theoretical and analytical principles of evolutionary quantitative genetics with the empirical and methodological techniques of statistical shape analysis. Essentially, we are interested in how morphological variation evolves, both under neutral stochastic parameters and as a result of non-neutral selective forces. Ultimately, we seek to better understand these guiding principles so as to make more informed inferences about the past evolutionary history of the primate fossil and the human osteoarchaeological records, where equivalent genetic data are currently not (or may never be) available.
Examples of research questions asked by our lab include:
Examples of research questions asked by our lab include:
- Are there universal patterns of skeletal covariation across all primates?
- What are the patterns of morphological integration across anthropoids and how did they evolve?
- Can changes in subsistence strategy explain variation in global human mandibular variation?
- To what extent are patterns of human skeletal asymmetry caused by genetic, developmental, or behavioral factors?
- What can we infer about patterns of prehistoric population dispersal on the basis of cranial shape variation?
- Is there any reason to favor cranial over postcranial information when estimating primate taxonomy and phylogeny?
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