Zeitschrift fur Morphologie und Anthropologie最新文献

The literature on twins and laterality is reviewed: Both monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic twins (DZ) show a low concordance in all functional and morphological asymmetries. The proportions of R-R, R-L and L-L pairs in MZ twins and in DZ twins are in binomial distribution. The incidence of left-handedness is the same in MZ twins and DZ twins, but higher than in singletons. Other laterality signs do not show this tendency. The whole issue of twinning is as yet unresolved, yet it is clear already that no simple genetic model for the inheritance can be applied. The present review discusses three genetic models and associated problems with each. The overall tendency to a higher rate of left-handedness in twins could be due to such pathological factors (associated with twinning) as intrauterine crowding and perinatal stress, but is not due to so-called "mirror imaging"-phenomena in twins.

Measure of vital capacity, grasping strength, stature, weight, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure as well as pulse frequency, both before and after exertion, were made on 165 twelve to fourteen year-old boys and girls from Hamburg schools-(Gymnasium). Age and sex showed significant mean differences on these measures, but not constantly so. Analysis of variance indicated some influence of age and sex, but these variables explained only a small part of total variance of physiological measures. Partial correlations clarified that age affects physiological measures primarily through its influence on height and weight. Only a few indicators showed a direct influence of maturity (i.e. menarchy) among girls.

This article reports results of an anthropological investigation on pre-school children from 1994. The body height and weight are presented and compared with results of the Jena Longitudinal Study and results of the investigations of school children which are carried out in Jena in relatively regular intervals since 1880. For the increase of the body weight since 1985/86 changes in the nutritional situation of the people from East-Germany are discussed. Other changes in the living conditions influencing the somatic development are analysed.

A sample of 1,310 girls, 5 to 13 years of age, drawn from Mainz, Wiesbaden and vicinity was studied to establish the eruption time of the permanent dentition. The data of the median date of eruption of different teeth was determined employing a nonparametric test for the estimation of a survivorship function with doubly censored data (TURNBULL 1974). The method presented shows a marked superiority over other techniques used to verify the median date of eruption. The diachronic comparison of several samples--mainly from the Rhine-Main-Area-encompassing the years 1909 till today, showed no uniform trend towards an earlier eruption date. In some cases, temporal differences were ascertained which can be readily attributed to varied definitions of dental status. Furthermore, a recalculation--using this innovative mathematical approach--of a sample from the Frankfurt area, originally studied by FRANZ (1938) did not show any unambiguous acceleration tendencies-at least not within the past 50 years. These results suggest that the human dentition is predominantly genetically determined and therefore environmental factors play a by far lesser role than in general physical development.

Serum specimens from 1385 unrelated males and females from seven Middle East and East European sample surveys (Prague, Olomouc, Krakow, Poznan, Szeged, Moscow, and Jekaterinburg) have been typed for seven polymorphic serum protein polymorphisms (GC, TF, PLG, PI, A2HS, F13B, and ITI). The distributions of phenotype and allele frequencies show a marked heterogeneity, especially with regard to the allel GC*1F of the GC system, the alleles A2HS*1 and A2HS*2 of the A2HS system and the alleles F13B*1 and F13B*3 allele of the F13B system. Analysis of the genetic variability by means of distance and principal component analysis revealed that with regard to the seven polymorphic loci studied the population samples from Prague and Jekaterinburg are characterized by deviating genetic structures. While the different genetic structure of the sample from Prague is mainly due to the distribution of the alleles at the A2HS locus, the sample from Jekaterinburg shows differences in several loci. The genetic dissimilarity corresponds to the large geographic distance from the other populations and can presumably be explained with the comparatively heterogeneous ethnic composition of the population of this city located at the geographic borderline between Europe and Asia.

Spatial autocorrelation analysis performed on published data pertaining to caste and tribal populations of the Indian subcontinent has revealed that the surfaces of A, B and O allele frequencies are highly fractured. The only significant spatial autocorrelation was observed in respect of the A allele frequency among caste populations.

Dermatoglyphic traits in an endogamous community of the village Chmelnica (North-Eastern part of Slovakia) are reported and their frequency is compared with an average Slovak population. The results of this study demonstrate the regional variability and the particular dermatoglyphic specificity of the investigated population. The most conspicuous are the increased intergender differences in the course of the main lines on the palms, their consequently higher quantitative expression by indices, and the higher quantitative values of total line numbers on fingers that was observed for females of our sample.

A description of the population groups in the three adjacent countries Japan, Korea and China has been made on the basis of the genetic markers of human immunoglobulins under consideration fo their characteristics and formation.

Fourteen anthropometric measurements were used to examine the affinities among 20 Dhangar castes of Maharashtra, in a sample of 2437 adult males. The results are interpreted in the light of their ethnohistorical and geographical backgrounds on the one hand and with reference to the affinities observed on the basis of other biological variables, different sets of qualitative and quantitative dermatoglyphic variables and genetic markers, on the other. The configuration of anthropometric distances is largely conformatory to the geographical backgrounds of the groups, and there is no significant correspondence with the dendrograms based on the other sets of variables which are mutually independent among them.

As long as cribra orbitalia manifests itself as an isolated skeletal lesion in excavated human skeletons, it is mostly diagnosed as being of nutritional origin, especially iron deficiency anemia. Since both iron and vitamin C function as cofactors at the hydroxylation of the amino acids proline and lysine in collagen, both amino acid analyses of bone collagen and the determination of bone mineral iron content was carried out at ten medieval skeletons with cribra orbitalia, opposed to ten morphologically healthy individuals from the same skeletal series. The skeletons with cribra orbitalia were significantly depleted with respect to OHpro (the OHpro/Pro-ratio being 16.9% lower than in the control group), but did not differ from the healthy individuals with respect to OHlys and iron content. No correlation was found between proline hydroxylation and age at death or degree of the disease. The data do not support the iron deficiency hypothesis. Most probably, vitamin C deficiency was responsible for the difference between diseased and morphologically healthy individuals. A combination of protein and elemental analysis of excavated bones should thus be suitable for the detection of deficient hydroxylation and its etiology: iron or vitamin C deficiency.