Geometric morphometric comparison of cranium of primates along the evolutionary pathway

Abstract

The terminology of Morphometry had been initiated for the investigation of fossils of humans and animals. The actual preliminary idea itself was to appraise the similarities amongst the body parts to establish the evolutionary familiarity among different species. In this present work, we have compared various primates such a Baboon, Gorilla, Chimpanzees, Homo sapiens, and tried to ascertain a liaison among them rendering to their shape and the constituent development over the evolutionary Hierarchy. The samples 0 (Baboon), 1 (Chimpanzee), 4 (Gorilla) and 7 (Orangutan) are morphometrically grouped together, while 6 (Lesser Bushbaby), 8 (Ruffed Lemur) and 10 (Tarsier) form a group of closely related species and the “rodent” like primates of 2 (Common Marmoset) and 9 (Squirrel Monkey) are in close proximity to each other. Homo sapiens sample is different from all other species due to variation in characteristics, and standing on top of the Suborder Anthropoidea, Infraorder Catarrhini evolutionary pyramid. The Minimum span trees obtained from our analysis of the ventral plane samples is identical to the established evolutionary hierarchy illustrating the accuracy of this investigation. However, we could not correlate the same tandem with the minimum span trees of other domains. A number of factors can be responsible for this versatile character, but further study is necessary to shed more light on the topic.