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Science 26 August 1977:
Vol. 197. no. 4306, pp. 901 - 904
DOI: 10.1126/science.407650
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Articles

Science, Vol 197, Issue 4306, 901-904
Copyright © 1977 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Orthogenesis of the hominids: an exploration using biorthogonal grids

FL Bookstein

In 1917, D'Arch Thompson suggested that one should study the change from one biological form to another by examining the unique mathematical object that maps between them in accord with biological homologies. Biorthogonal grids provide a particular coordinate system for visualizing such a map and lead to a quantitative syntax in which a change in shape is reduced to differential changes in size. Application of the method to hominid skull phylogeny has demonstrated three principal axes of evolutionary change anatomically homologous over a fossil sequence.




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)