East-West cranial differentiation in pre-Columbian populations from Central and North America

In a recent study we found that crania from South Amerindian populations on each side of the Andes differ significantly in terms of craniofacial shape. Western populations formed one morphological group, distributed continuously over 14,000 km from the Fuegian archipelago (southern Chile) to the Zulia region (northwestern Venezuela). Easterners formed another group, distributed from the Atlantic Coast up to the eastern foothills of the Andes. This differentiation is further supported by several genetic studies, and indirectly by ecological and archaeological studies. Some authors suggest that this dual biological pattern is consistent with differential rates of gene flow and genetic drift operating on both sides of the Cordillera due to historical reasons. Here we show that such East-West patterning is also observable in North America. We suggest that the ""ecological zones model"" proposed by Dixon, explaining the spread of the early Americans along a Pacific dispersal corridor, combined with the evolution of different population dynamics in both regions, is the most parsimonious mechanism to explain the observed patterns of within- and between-group craniofacial variability. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Some aboriginal sites in Louisiana and in Arkansas: Atchafalaya River, Lake Larto, Tensas River, Bayou Maçon, Bayou D'Arbonne, in Louisiana; Saline River, in Arkansas;

"Reprint from the Journal of the Academy of natural sciences of Philadelphia, vol. XVI."

Sammlung Baessler: Schädel von polynesischen Inseln, gesammelt und nach den fundorten beschrieben von Arthur Baessler.

Mode of access: Internet.

Crania americana, or, A comparative view of the skulls of various aboriginal nations of North and South America : to which is prefixed an essay on the variety of the human species ... /

"Appendix. Phrenological remarks on the relation between the natural talents and dispositions of nations and the developments of their brains. By George Combe, esq.": p. [296]-291.

Cráneos de los antiguos peruanos.

Third title is author's autograph presentation copy.

Crania aegyptiaca; or, Observations on Egyptian ethnography, derived from anatomy, history and the monuments.

Microfilm. Ann Arbor, Mich., University Microfilms [n.d.] (American culture series, Reel 231.3)

Dissertation sur les variétés naturelles qui caractérisent la physionomie des hommes des divers climats et des différens ages : suivie de réflexions sur la beauté, particulièrement sur celle de la tête : avec une manière nouvelle de dessiner toute sorte de têtes avec la plus grande exactitude /

"Dissertation sur la meilleure forme des souliers. Par feu M. Pierre Camper"--P. [117]-164.

Voyage pittoresque autour de monde : avec des portraits de sauvages d'Amérique, d'Asie, d'Afrique, et des iles du Grand océan; des paysages, des vues maritimes, et plusieurs objets d'histoire naturelle; accompagné de descriptions par le Baron Cuvier, et A. de Chamisso, et d'observations sur les crânes humains, par m. le docteur Gall /

Mode of access: Internet.

Stone age skull surgery: a general review, with emphasis on the New World.

"From the Smithsonian report for 1957."