Acta Palaeontologica Polonica

Evolutionary rate of craniometric traits in Hominidae

Andrzej Wierciński

Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 01 (3), 1956: 241-258

This paper contains a discussion on the evolutionary rate of 62 craniometric features in Hominidae. It is based on computation of average of absolute velocities and those of absolute accelerations with reference to individual traits time variations. In doing so the author adopted the division of the process of anthropogenesis into four evolutionary phases, i.e. Pithecanthropus, Homo neanderthalensis, H. sapiens fossilis and H. sapiens recens. Close investigation of the calculated data revealed velocities of specialized traits changes in the skull of Hominidae to increase with the lapse of time and to attain their maximum in the phase of Homo sapiens fossilis and that of H. sapiens recens.


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