DA · No two halves are identical: a quantitative study of cranial asymmetry in human and non-human primates
FP7 — People (Marie Curie Actions)
- Duration
- 2011-02-01 → 2013-01-31
- EU contribution
- €30,000
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MC-ERG
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
No two halves are identical: a quantitative study of cranial asymmetry in human and non-human primates
This project has not been completely finished because of early termination of the contract by Dr Singh, who has now accepted a postdoctoral position in the USA. Therefore not all the original goals of the project have been achieved at the time of the final report. Nonetheless, the planned activities and publications will take place as originally scheduled. A presentation at the annual conference of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists is planned for the spring of 2013, and two manuscripts will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals in the next months.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Asymmetry is a fundamental biological aspect of all organisms. Cranial asymmetry is regarded as a signature for genetic and developmental instabilities and manifests itself in different aspects of the physiology and morphology. The most conspicuous form of bilateral asymmetry is directional asymmetry (difference between left and right sides of a body part). Understanding the biological processes underlying variability and variation is fundamental to biological anthropology and most other biological fields. The proposed project is the first of its kind to conduct an in-depth quantitative study of cranial asymmetry and bears implications for the evolution and development of human and non-human primate crania. This study will: 1) examine the evolutionary origin of directional asymmetry in hominoids; 2) examine the development of such asymmetric features in a large ontogenetic sample; 3) examine the pattern and degree of asymmetric variation between pathological (microcephalic) and non-pathological humans. The study will use quantitative methods such as landmark-based 3D geometric morphometrics to collect and analyse cranial measurements obtained from living human and non-human apes such as gibbons, orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees. The outcome of this study will bear important implications for paleoanthropology, evolutionary biology and possibly clinical studies on cranio-facial variation.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- EBERHARD KARLS UNIVERSITAET TUEBINGEN · TuebingenCoordinatorGermany
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union