Acta Anatomica Sinica ›› 2018, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (4): 529-534.doi: 10.16098/j.issn.0529-1356.2018.04.019

• Anthropology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Size variation and related implications of Chinese female mandibles in Holocene

LI Hai-jun 1,2* CHEN Feng1 ZHANG Yi-dan3 DAI Cheng-ping1   

  1. 1. School of Ethnology and Sociology of Minzu University of China,Beijing100081,China; 2. State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy (Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, CAS), Nanjing210008, China; 3. Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing102488, China
  • Received:2018-04-02 Revised:2018-04-24 Online:2018-08-06 Published:2018-08-06
  • Contact: LI Hai-jun E-mail:lihaijunchina@hotmail.com

Abstract:

Objective   To better understand variation of Holocene Chinese mandibular morphology, a study was conducted on 215 adult female mandibles. Methods  In this study, 23 mandible measurement traits were measured using traditional anthropometric method. SPSS 18.0 software was used to carry out the average calculation of measurement trait data of each era and the significance test among different periods. Results  The overall size of female mandibles decreased from the Neolithic to Bronze-Iron Ages to present day. The linear characters of the female mandiblular features varied between different time periods. The decrease of thickness of the mandibular corpus primarily occurred during the Neolithic to Bronze-Iron Ages. The decrease in main size and body height was during the Bronze-Iron Ages to present day. It is possible that mandibles became thinner before the overall size decreased. Conclusion  The comparison shows that the evolvement trend of the mandibular of the Holocene female is basically consistent with that of male.

Key words: Holocene, Chinese mandible, Morphology, Microevolution, Measurement, Adult female