Intergroup variability of the khakas based on non-metric cranial traits data

Abstract

Introduction. The formation of the gene pool of modern Khakas people occurred through the interaction of various groups of ancient inhabitants of the Minusinsk Basin. This article is focused on the inter-group analysis of craniological series representing different Khakassian subethnic groups.

Materials and Methods. The cranial series of the Kachins, Koibals, Sagais, and Beltirs was studied using the battery of 36 cranial non-metric characteristics. The obtained data was compared with data on other populations of Southern and Western Siberia: Shors, Tuvans, Telengits, Selkups, Khants, and Mansis. The analysis of the biological diversity of populations was carried out using Smith's mean measure of divergence (MMD) followed by multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis.

Results. The Kachins are the most distant from the other Khakas subethnic groups, forming a cluster with the Telengits and Tuvans. The Koibals and Beltirs were positioned quite close to the Shors. The Sagais occupied a separate position in the Khakas cluster, presumably due to a greater proportion of Europoid admixture compared to other Khakas groups. The pooled Khakas sample shares similar cranial non-metric characteristics with Turkic-speaking ethnic groups of Southern Siberia: Shors, Telengits, and Tuvans.

Discussion. The nature of phenetic differentiation of the Khakas sub-ethnic groups presumably reveals their complex population history. The position of the Kachins outside the Khakas cluster based on non-metric traits resulted from specificity of their phenofund, which is also supported by molecular genetic data. The similarity in the phenofund of the Khakas groups to those of the Tuvans and Telengits may result from gene flow between Khakas populations and the peoples of Southern Siberia or/and from their common episodes in their ethnogenesis. The similarity between pooled Khakassian sample and the Shors presumably suggests involvement of common genetic components in the gene pools of these peoples, which is consistent with molecular genetic data.

Conclusion. The correspondence of the obtained results with genetic data suggests the possibility of using cranial non-metric traits to identify genetic relationships between ancient populations in the absence of direct genetic information. © 2024. This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license

References

Alekseev V.P. Kranologiya khakasov v svyazi s voprosami ikh proiskhozhdeniya [Craniology of the Khakas in relation to the questions of their origin]. TKKAEE [Transactions of the Commission for the Study of the Anthropology and Ethnography of the Peoples of Siberia and the Far East]. Vol. 4. Moscow, 1960, pp. 269–364. (In Russ.).

Alekseev V.P. Blizkiy k sovremennosti kranologicheskiy material po finno-ugorskim narodam, ikh rasovaya differentsiatsiya i etnogenez [Craniological material close to modern times on Finno-Ugric peoples, their racial differentiation and ethnogenesis]. Etnogenez finno-ugorskih narodov po dannym antropologii [Ethnogenesis of Finno-Ugric peoples based on anthropological data]. Moscow: Nauka, 1974, pp. 54 -69.

Alekseev V.P. Istoricheskaya antropologiya i antropogenez [Historical anthropology and anthropogenesis]. Moscow: Nauka, 1989. (In Russ.).

Alekseev V.P., Gokhman I.I. Antropologiya aziatskoy chasti SSSR [Anthropology of the Asian part of the USSR]. Moscow: Nauka, 1984. (In Russ.).

Bagashev A.N. Proiskhozhdenie aborigenov Severnoy Evrazii. Vzglyad antropologa [The Origin of the Aboriginal Peoples of Northern Eurasia: An Anthropologist’s Perspective]. Saarbrucken: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing Gmbh & Co. 2011.

Balaganskaya O.A., Balanovskaya E.V., Lavryashina M.B., Isakova Zh.T., Sabitov Zh.M. s soavt. Polimorfizm Y khromosomy u tyurkoyazychnogo naseleniya Altae-Sayana, Tyan'-Shanya i Pamira v kontekste vzaimodeystviya genofondov zapadnoy i vostochnoy Evrazii [Y Chromosome polymorphism in the Turkic-speaking population of Altai-Sayan, Tien Shan, and Pamir in the context of the interaction of gene pools of Western and Eastern Eurasia]. Meditsinskaya genetika [Medical Genetics], 2011, 10 (3), pp. 12–22. (In Russ.).

Balanovskaya E.V. Vliyanie okruzhayushchey sredy na genofond tyurkoyazychnogo naseleniya gor i stepnykh predgoriy Altaya, Sayan, Tyan'-Shanya i Pamira [The impact of the environment on the gene pool of the Turkic-speaking population of the mountains and steppe foothills of Altai, Sayan, Tien Shan, and Pamir]. Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin [Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya XXIII: Antropologiya], 2014, 2, pp. 46–55. (In Russ.).

Debets G.F. Antropologicheskie issledovaniya v Kamchatskoy oblasti [Anthropological studies in the Kamchatka region]. In Trudy instituta etnografii im.N.N.Miklukho – Maklaya, Novaya seriya, T. XVII. [Proceedings of the Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnography. New Series, Vol. XVII]. Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow – Leningrad, 1951. (In Russ.).

Dremov V.A. Kranologiya sredneobskikh khantov [Craniology of the Middle Ob Khanty]. In Obskie ugry: Khanty i mansi [The Ob Ugric Peoples: Khanty and Mansi]. M.:In-t etnologii i antropologii RAN [Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology RAS]. Moscow, 1991, pp. 10–28.

Kim A.R. Materialy k kranologii kyzyltsev [Materials on the Craniology of the Kyzyltsy]. Etnokul'turnye yavleniya v Zapadnoy Sibiri [Ethnocultural Phenomena in Western Siberia]. Tomsk: Publishing House of Tomsk University, 1978, pp. 208–216.

Levin M.G. K voprosu o yuzhnosibirskom antropologicheskom type [On the issue of the South Siberian anthropological type]. In Kratkie soobshcheniya Instituta etnografii [Brief Communications of the Institute of Ethnography], XXI. Moscow, 1954, pp. 70–78. (In Russ.).

Roginskiy Ya.Ya., Levin M.G. Antropologiya: Uchebnik dlya studentov universitetov [Anthropology: A Textbook for University Students]. Moscow: Higher School Publ., 1978. (In Russ.).

Spitsyna N.Kh., Makarov S.V., Bets L.V., Limborskaya S.A., Karapetyan M.K. s soavt. Novaya informatsiya o genofonde vostochnykh khantov [New information on the gene pool of the Eastern Khants]. Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin [Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya XXIII: Antropologiya], 2014, 4, pp. 101–106. (In Russ.).

Kharkov V.N., Khamina K.V., Medvedeva O.F., Shtygashyova O.V., Stepanov V.A. Raznoobrazie genofonda khakasov: vnutrietnicheskaya differentsiatsiya i struktura gaplogrupp Y-khromosomy [Diversity of the Khakas gene pool: intra-ethnic differentiation and the structure of Y-Chromosome haplogroups]. Molecularnaya Biologiya [Molecular Biology], 2011, 45 (3), pp. 446–458. (In Russ.).

Kharkov V.N., Novikova L.M., Shtygashyova O.V., Luzina F.A., Khitrinskaya I.Yu. s soavt. Genofond khakasov i shortsiv po markeram y-khromosomy: obshchie komponenty i geneticheskaya struktura rodov [The gene pool of the Khakas and Shor people according to Y-Chromosome markers: common components and genetic structure of clans]. Genetika [Genetics], 2020, 56 (7), pp. 826–833. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.31857/S0016675820070073.

Yarkho A.I. Altae-sayanskie tyurki [Altai-Sayan Turks]. Moscow, 1934. (In Russ.).

Berry A.C., Berry R.J. Epigenetic variation in the human cranium. Journal of Anatomy, 1967, 101, pp. 361–379.

Brasili P., Zaccagni L., Gualdi-Russo E. Scoring of nonmetric cranial traits: A population study. Journal of Anatomy, 1999, 195, pp. 551–562.

Evteev A.A., Movsesian A.A. Testing the association between human mid-facial morphology and climate using autosomal, mitochondrial, Y chromosomal polymorphisms and cranial non-metrics. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., 2016, 159 (3), pp. 517–522.

Green R.F., Suchey J.M. The use of inverse sine transformations in the analysis of non-metric cranial data. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., 1976, 45, pp. 61–68.

Hallgrímsson B., Donnabháin B.О., Walters G.B., Cooper D.M.L., Guđbjartsson D. et al. Composition of the founding population of Iceland: biological distance and morphological variation in early historic Atlantic Europe. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., 2004, 124 (3), pp. 257-74.

Hanihara T. Morphological variation of major human populations based on nonmetric dental traits. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., 2008, 136, pp. 169-182.

Hanihara T., Ishida H. & Dodo Y. Characterization of biological diversity through analysis of discrete cranial traits. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., 2003, 121, pp. 241–251.

Hanihara T., Matsumura H., Kawakubo Y., Coung N.L., Thuy N.K. et al. Population history of northern Vietnamese inferred from nonmetric cranial trait variation. Anthropological Science, 2012, 120 (2), pp. 157-165.

Herrera B., Hanihara T., Godde K. Comparability of Multiple Data Types from the Bering Strait Region: Cranial and Dental Metrics and Nonmetrics, mtDNA, and Y-Chromosome DNA. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., 2014, 154 (3), pp. 334-48.

Irish J.D. Ancestral dental traits in recent sub-Saharan Africans and the origins of modern humans. Journal of Human Evolution, 1998, 34, pp. 81–98. DOI: 10.1006/jhev.1997.0191.

Irish J.D. Who were the ancient Egyptians? Dental affinities among Neolithic through post-dynastic peoples. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., 2006, 129, pp. 529–543.

Irish J.D. The mean measure of divergence: it’s utility in model-free and model-bound analyses relative to the Mahalanobis D² distance for nonmetric traits. American Journal of Human Biology, 2010, 22, pp. 378–395. DOI: 10.1002/ajhb.21010.

Karafet T.M., Osipova L.P., Savina O.V., Hallmark B., Ham M.F. Siberian genetic diversity reveals complex origins of the Samoyedic-speaking populations. American Journal of Human Biology, 2018, Nov 8:e23194.

Killgrove K. Rethinking taxonomies: Skeletal variation on the North Carolina coastal plain. Southeastern Archaeology, 2009, 28, pp. 87–100.

Lavryashina M., Ulyanova M., Balaganskaya O. & Balanovska E. Genetic structure of the khakass sub-ethnic groups from autosomal DNA markers and surnames // Science Evolution, 2016, 1, pp. 78–84.

Manica A., Amo, W., Balloux F., Hanihara T. The effect of ancient population bottlenecks on human phenotypic variation. Nature, 2007, 448, pp. 346–349.

Movsesian A.A., Bakholdina V.Yu, Pezhemsky D.V. Biological diversity and population history of Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers from the Cis-Baikal region of Siberia. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., 2014, 155, pp. 559–570. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22608.

Movsesian A. A., Mkrtchyan R. A., Simonyan H. G. The Bronze and Iron Age populations of the Armenian Highland in the genetic history of Armenians. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., 2020, 173 (1), pp. 158–167.

Nikita E., Mattingly D., Lah M. M. Sahara: Barrier or Corridor? Nonmetric cranial traits and biological affinities of North African late Holocene populations. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., 2012, 147, pp. 280–292.

Ossenberg N.S., Dodo Y., Maeda Y., Kawakubo Y. Ethnogenesis and craniofacial change in Japan from the perspective of nonmetric traits. Anthropological Science, 2006, 114, pp. 99–115.

Relethford J.H. Global patterns of isolation by distance based on genetic and morphological data. Human Biology, 2004, 76, pp. 499–513.

Ricaut F.X., Auriol V., Cramon-Taubadel N., Keyser Ch., Murail P. et al. Comparison between morphological and genetic data to estimate biological relationship: The case of the Egyin Gol necropolis (Mongolia). Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., 2010, 143, pp. 355–364.

Roseman C.C. Detecting interregionally diversifying natural selection on modern human cranial form by using matched molecular and morphometric data. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 2004, 101, pp. 12824–12829.

Santos F. AnthropMMD: An R package with a graphical user interface for the mean measure of divergence. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., 2018, 165 (1), pp. 200–205.

Saunders S.R. Nonmetric skeletal variation. In: Iscan MY, Kennedy KAR, editors. Reconstruction of life from the skeleton. New York: Alan R. Liss. 1989, pp. 95–108.

Singh J., Pathak R.K. Sex and age-related non-metric variation of the human sternum in a Northwest Indian postmortem sample: A pilot study. Forensic Science International, 2013, 228, pp. 181.e1–181.e12.

Sjøvold T. The occurrence of minor nonmetrical variants in the skeleton and their quantitative treatment for population comparisons. Homo, 1973, 24, pp. 204–233.

Sjøvold T. Non-metrical divergence between skeletal populations: the theoretical foundation and biological importance of C.A.B. Smith’s mean measure of divergence. Ossa, 1978, 4 [Suppl], pp. 1–133.

Sutter R.C., Mertz L. Nonmetric cranial trait variation and prehistoric biocultural change in the Azapa Valley, Chile. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., 2004, 123, pp. 130–145.

Tambets K., Yunusbayev B., Hudjashov G., Ilumäe A.M., Rootsi S. et al. Genes reveal traces of common recent demographic history for most of the Uralic-speaking populations. Genome Biology, 2018, 19, 139.

Von Cramon-Taubadel N. Congruence of individual cranial bone morphology and neutral molecular affinity patterns in modern humans. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., 2009, 140, pp. 205–215.

Weiss E. Biological distance at the Ryan Mound site. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., 2018, 165, pp. 554-564. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23392.