BODY PROPORTIONS IN LATE PLEISTOCENE EUROPE AND MODERN HUMAN ORIGINS

Body proportions covary with climate, apparently as the result of clim atic selection. Ontogenetic research and migrant studies have demonstr ated that body proportions are largely genetically controlled and are under low selective rates; thus studies of body form can provide evide nce for evolutionarily short-term dispersals and/or gene flow. Followi ng these observations, competing models of modern human origins yield different predictions concerning body proportion shifts in Late Pleist ocene Europe. Replacement predicts that the earliest modern Europeans will possess ''tropical'' body proportions (assuming Africa is the cen ter of origin), while Regional Continuity permits only minor shifts in body shape, due to climatic change and/or improved cultural buffering . This study tests these predictions via analyses of osteometric data reflective of trunk height and breadth, limb proportions and relative body mass for samples of Early Upper Paleolithic (EUP), Late Upper Pal eolithic (LUP) and Mesolithic (MES) humans and 13 recent African and E uropean populations. Results reveal a clear tendency for the EUP sampl e to cluster with recent Africans, while LW and MES samples cluster wi th recent Europeans. These results refute the hypothesis of local cont inuity in Europe, and are consistent with an interpretation of elevate d gene flow (and population dispersal?) from Africa, followed by subse quent climatic adaptation to colder conditions. These data do not, how ever, preclude the possibility of some (albeit small) contribution of genes from Neandertals to succeeding populations, as is postulated in Brauer's ''Afro-European Sapiens'' model.