A new statistical method for estimating divergence dates of species from DNA sequence data by a molecular clock approach is developed. This method takes into account effectively the information contained in a set of DNA sequence data. The molecular clock of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was calibrated by setting the date of divergence between primates and ungulates at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary (65 million years ago), when the extinction of dinosaurs occurred. A generalized least-squares method was applied in fitting a model to mtDNA sequence data, and the clock gave dates of 92.3 +/- 11.7, 13.3 +/- 1.5, 10.9 +/- 1.2, 3.7 +/- 0.6, and 2.7 +/- 0.6 million years ago (where the second of each pair of numbers is the standard deviation) for the separation of mouse, gibbon, orangutan, gorilla, and chimpanzee, respectively, from the line leading to humans. Although there is some uncertainty in the clock, this dating may pose a problem for the widely believed hypothesis that the pipedal creature Australopithecus afarensis, which lived some 3.7 million years ago at Laetoli in Tanzania and at Hadar in Ethiopia, was ancestral to man and evolved after the human-ape splitting. Another likelier possibility is that mtDNA was transferred through hybridization between a proto-human and a proto-chimpanzee after the former had developed bipedalism.

Dating of the human-ape splitting by a molecular clock of mitochondrial DNA.

ilbstract. Autocorrelation is a very general statistical property of ecological variables observed across geographic space; its most common forms are patches and gradients. Spatial autocorrelation. which comes either from the physical forcing of environmental variables or from community processes, presents a problem for statistical testing because autocorrelated data violate the assumption of independence of most standard statistical procedures. The paper discusses first how autocorrelation in ecological variables can be described and measured. with emphasis on mapping techniques. Then. proper statistical testing in the presence of autocorrelation is briefly discussed. Finally. ways are presented of explicitly introducing spatial structures into ecological models. Two approaches are proposed: in the raw-data approach, the spatial structure takes the form of a polynomial of the x and .v geographic coordinates of the sampling stations; in the matrix approach. the spatial structure is introduced in the form of a geographic distance matrix among locations. These two approaches are compared in the concluding section. A table provides a list of computer programs available for spatial analysis.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/1939924.pdf

Spatial Autocorrelation: Trouble or New Paradigm?

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is the protocol backing the core routing decisions on the Internet. It maintains a table of IP networks or 'prefixes' which designate network reachability among autonomous systems (AS). Point of concern in BGP is its lack of effective security measures which makes Internet vulnerable to different forms of attacks. Many solutions have been proposed till date to combat BGP security issues but not a single one is deployable in practical scenario. Any security proposal with optimal solution should offer adequate security functions, performance overhead and deployment cost. This paper critically analyzes the deployment issues of best three proposals considering trade-off between security functions and performance overhead.

Comparative analysis of

Darwin (1859, pp. 11-14, 143-150) stressed the evolutionary importance of covariation between characters in populations and its "most imperfectly understood" connection with correlated responses to artificial and natural selection. After the turn of the century the discoveries of pervasive pleiotropy and linkage of Mendelian factors revealed the underlying genetic mechanisms. Existing theory on the dynamics of correlated characters has been developed in the limited framework of practical plant and animal breeding. Methods of multivariate analysis, functional analysis and optimality criteria popular among evolutionists, do not account for dynamical constraints imposed by the pattern of genetic variation within populations. Consideration of phenotypic variation often does not suggest any clear mechanism connecting growth patterns or adult variation to interspecific evolution. When there is individual variation in development, no necessary correspondence exists between ontogenetic and adult variation in a population (Cock, 1966, pp. 148-15 1). It is also common for the pattern of adult variation within a species to differ from that at higher taxonomic levels (Simpson, 1953, pp. 25-29). An example which will be investigated here is the brain weight:body weight relationship. At various taxonomic levels, brain and body weights tend to follow the allometric equation

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1558-5646.1979.tb04694.x

Quantitative genetic analysis of multivariate evolution, applied to brain:body size allometry.

The principles of classification and a classification of mammals. Bulletin of the AMNH ; v. 85

Part 3: The epidemiological transition and anthropology of minor chronic non‐infectious diseases

Non-metric variation of the skull in samples of four Indian populations

Within and between tombs at the site of Huaca Loro (ca. A.D. 1000) on north coastal Peru, biological relatedness based on 23 dental characters follows statistically significant patterns. mtDNA groupings that are based on lineages inferred from inherited derived D-loop bp sequences have also been traced among the individuals. The present study finds a significant, although rather poorly predictive, relation between mtDNA and dental interindividual linkages. When analyzing the individual dental traits for correspondence to mtDNA “lineages”, several significant relations are found and one trait in particular, buccal expansion of the maxillary distal premolar, corresponds highly to mtDNA patterning.

/pdf/dental-and-mtdna-relatedness-among-thousand-year-old-remains-2gdbfu0muw.pdf

Dental and mtDNA Relatedness Among Thousand-Year-Old Remains from Huaca Loro, Peru

Ciochon, R. L., and R. S. Corruccini (Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 and Division of Physical Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560) 1977. The phenetic position of Pliopithecus and its phylogenetic relationship to the Hominoidea. Syst. Zool. 26:290-299.-Problems of ascertaining affinities of fossil taxa are explored utilizing the European Miocene primate Pliopithecus vindobonensis as an example. Traditionally, Pliopithecus has been regarded as an ancestral gibbon, yet aspects of its postcranial anatomy contradict this. Current studies provide strong evidence that the forelimb complex of the extant Hominoidea represents a synapomorphic character complex. The shoulder joint of Pliopithecus was therefore compared with 17 species of anthropoid primates using 10 measurements emphasizing the glenohumeral articulation. Multivariate analysis indicates that Pliopithecus conforms in every way with the symplesiomorphic morphopattern shown by extant cercopithecoids and platyrrhine primates but contrasts markedly with extant hominoids, especially the gibbon. It is therefore unlikely that Pliopithecus and Hylobates are directly related. The great similarity of Pliopithecus to the African Miocene primate, Dendropithecus, also sheds doubt on its current hylobatine classification. [Phenetics; phylogenetics; shoulder; multivariate analysis; Pliopithecus.] The accurate assessment of the taxonomic and phylogenetic affinities of fossil taxa has always been a difficult task. Problems arise from inaccurately applied neontological systematics and the disparate usage of various taxonomic philosophies (Schaeffer, Hecht and Eldredge, 1972). The exact nature of the relationship of a particular fossil specimen to other fossil and recent taxa, be it phenetic, cladistic, evolutionary or otherwise, must be expressly stated. If not, misinterpretations may develop and later become the source of futile controversy. An appropriate example can be found in discussions of the European Miocene primate Pliopithecus vindobonensis. The first specimens allocated to the genus Pliopithecus were discovered as long ago as the early part of the middle 19th century (Lartet, 1837; Blainville, 1840; Gervais, 1845). Today, Pliopithecus ranks as perhaps the best known Neogene fossil primate, being represented by 3 partial skeletons and hundreds of isolated cranial and dental elements. Yet the phylogenetic affinities of this primate are still the subject of much recent speculation (Groves, 1972, 1974; Tuttle, 1972; Frisch, 1973; Simons and Fleagle, 1973; Morbeck, 1972, 1975; Feldesman, 1975; Delson, 1975, 1976; Delson and Andrews, 1975). When only dental remains of Pliopithecus were known, it was widely believed to be a small hominoid primate ancestral to the extant Hylobatinae (Lartet, 1837; Hiirzeler, 1954; Piveteau, 1957). Others who studied the dentition, however, did notice certain primitive features such as a strong buccal cingulum, frequent occurrence of a paraconid on M1, distal position of the metaconid, existence of a direct hypoconid-protoconid ridge and the tendency of the talonid to be broader than the trigonid (Ferembach, 1958; Remane, 1965; Groves, 1972). With the discovery of the 3 partial skeletons of Pliopithecus in the middle Miocene ("Vindobonian" or Badenian in current local terminology) deposits of Czechoslovakia, a reassessment of the genus took place. However, the outcome was very similar to the traditional long standing view (Zapfe, 1958, 1960; Simons, 1964, 1969) despite the presence of such primitive postcranial features as a low intermembral index, unspecialized hand pha-

The Phenetic Position of Pliopithecus and its Phylogenetic Relationship to the Hominoidea

Village-dwelling Punjabi youths show significantly better dental occlusion and less chronic respiratory allergy than their city-dwelling counterparts. Field diagnosis finds posterior crossbite the only occlusal condition correlated with mouth breathing in the samples studied.

Robert S. Corruccini

Papers

Part 3: The epidemiological transition and anthropology of minor chronic non‐infectious diseases

Non-metric variation of the skull in samples of four Indian populations

Dental and mtDNA Relatedness Among Thousand-Year-Old Remains from Huaca Loro, Peru

The Phenetic Position of Pliopithecus and its Phylogenetic Relationship to the Hominoidea

Mouth Breathing, Occlusion, and Modernization in a North Indian Population