Morphological and Population Genomic Analysis Demonstrates that Natural Selection and Neutral Evolutionary Processes Contributed to the Evolution of the Human Skeleton

Abstract

The advent of the post‐genomic era and the concomitant availability of large genome‐wide polymorphism data has opened a new set of perspectives on old problems in the evolution of human phenotypic variation. Matching phenotypic and genomic data at the population level allows for an unprecedented opportunity to separate the effects of natural selection from those of random genetic drift and gene flow on morphological variation. Using this approach, I compare the goodness of fit of a series of models of human phenotypic evolution for both cranial and post cranial characteristics. None of the models traditionally used in the study of human phenotypic evolution are well supported. Models that include both terms reflecting natural selection and the neutral evolutionary processes that arise through human population history are typically the best fit. The complex and multi‐causal nature of human phenotypic evolution means that the study of human adaption needs to take forces of evolution other than natural selection into account through a synthesis uniting genome and phenome.