Morphological variation in the nasal region of extant and fossil hominids

Abstract

We describe here the mid-facial region of a skull of anatomically modern Homo sapiens (FAI 3/2/1) that exhibits upwardly divergent nasal bones. In previous literature, that pattern has been described as a diagnostic character state for the robust early hominid taxon Paranthropus. This specimen supports our viewpoint that nasal region morphology varies extensively within and between living hominoid primate taxa, in patterns that provide a basis for understanding how microevolutionary variation serves as the basis for macroevolutionary transformations.