Anthropological Review, founded in 1926 by Adam Wrzosek – a distinguished Polish physician, pathologist, anthropologist, and historian of medicine – has been publishing cutting‑edge research in biological anthropology for nearly a century.
This edition features:
Predicting Prosociality in Primates: Socio-Ecological Influences and a Framework of Inter-Brain Neural Synchronization
Jacob Sevastidis, Gary Clark, Maciej Henneberg, Lance Storm, Arjun Burlakoti, Arthur Saniotis, Wenpeng You
Prosocial co-operation is critical for evolution and survival on Earth and has crucially shaped the development of Homo sapiens. Inter-brain neural synchronization (IBNS) has been shown to enhance prosocial co-operation in mammals and avians. The selection pressures which led to the development of IBNS throughout primate evolution are currently unknown. This paper aims to expand the understanding of IBNS in non-human primates by reviewing the literature on various primate populations that display prosocial behaviors that could correlate with IBNS. Binary logit modelling using machine learning methods was applied to social, ecological, morphological, and biological (SEMB) variables correlated with prosocial behaviors to obtain probabilities of prosociality. Our results suggest that select SEMB variables such as daily socialisation, food-sharing and hierarchy structure are strong predictors of prosocial behaviors in primates. We provide a framework that offers testable hypotheses for the existence of IBNS in primates based on the correlations between SEMB variables and prosocial behaviors. We also offer ideas of the ecological/behavioral forces that may correlate with neural activation patterns of primate IBNS. Through comparison to Homo sapiens models, these findings suggest IBNS in primates may exist beyond cercopithecids and may be evoked by similar socio-ecological contexts. However, some key neurological distinctions between the two groups exist, influencing which distinct patterns of behavior may evoke IBNS (relative to their socio-ecological context).
The Critical Role of Dopamine in the Evolution of Human Intelligence and Thermal Tolerance
Fred H. Previc
Modern humans are unique among anthropoids in many key features, including our advanced intelligence, large brain-body size, thermal tolerance, and endurance capability. The objective of this theoretical review is to update the theory of Previc (1999) postulating the importance of dopamine in human evolution by synthesizing newer findings concerning dopamine’s role in human intellectual and endurance capabilities. Recent evidence further supports the putative role of dopamine in advanced human intelligence (especially cognitive flexibility) and thermal tolerance and endurance. One key breakthrough is a collection of recent studies demonstrating a uniquely human dopaminergic innervation of the striatum and prefrontal cortex—both essential to human cognition. Another potentially important finding is the human-specific mutation of an enhancer to the EN1 gene that controls eccrine gland formation and plays a major role in the development of dopaminergic brain systems. A plausible evolutionary scenario is put forth in which the enhanced thermal capabilities linked to dopaminergic evolution may have gradually led to the enhanced intellects of modern humans.
Predicting Facial Anthropometry: A Novel Guide for Facial Reconstruction Using a Nigerian Igbo Sample
Nicholas Asiwe, Oghenefego Michael Adheke, Michael Okon, Josiah Soipiriala Hart
The present study was conducted to generate facial anthropometry baseline data for adult males and females of Igbo ethnicity in south-eastern Nigeria and to develop facial anthropometric prediction and correlation models. This cross-sectional, descriptive study design involved using 200 males and 200 females. The study criteria included subjects with no history of facial surgery and were within the age interval of 18–35 years. With the aid of spreading and digital caliper, different percutaneous facial measurements were obtained and data collected were analyzed both descriptively and inferentially. There were statistically significant sex differences in all metrics. Mandibular width (MW) correlated with both forehead width (FHW), lower facial height (LFH) and nasal width (NW) for both sexes. Total facial height (TFH) correlated with NW, upper facial height (UFH), mid-facial height (MFH), and lower facial height (LFH), while NW correlated with MW, UFH, MFH, and LFH. Predictive models developed using univariate regression analysis for both sexes showed that MW was a strong predictor of FHW, while UFH, MFH, and LFH were individually strong predictors of TFH (p<0.05). Further, MFH and LFH were significant predictors of FH for both sexes. By using multivariate regression analysis, it was revealed that the combination of both FW and FHW were strong predictors of MW, while the combination of UFH, MFH, and LFH were significant predictors of TFH. Conclusively, these new data should aid forensic and surgical efforts in Nigerian contexts. Our models can be tested on other underrepresented populations to better understand current methods in facial anthropometry.
Assessment of the Internal Consistency of Two Polish References in Detecting Short Stature and Obesity in Children and Adolescents
Zbigniew Kułaga, Aneta Kotowska
In paediatric practice, growth references are used by doctors and nurses to evaluate a child’s growth status. We present an assessment of the internal consistency of two Polish references in detecting short stature and obesity in children and adolescents. Key diagnostic thresholds, the 3rd percentile for height and the 95th for Body Mass Index (BMI), were selected for comparison. Percentiles were calculated for hypothetical heights 0.2 cm lower than the third percentile of specific references and 0.1 units lower than the 95th percentile of specific references, in the case of height and BMI references, respectively. The z-scores were calculated and converted to percentiles. MS Excel was used. Around the 3rd percentile of height and the 95th percentile of BMI, there is a discrepancy in the Warsaw growth reference for measured height and BMI, respectively, and the calculated percentile. In the case of the Polish 2010 and 2012 growth references, a hypothetical height 0.2 cm below the third percentile of height-for-age reference yielded percentiles below 3 for all ages in both sexes. The Polish 2010 and 2012 growth references for measurements 0.1 units below the obesity threshold yielded percentiles of 94.69–94.86 in boys and girls. The Polish 2010 and 2012 growth references provide consistent and coherent calculation results for the 3rd percentile of height and the 95th percentile of BMI for children and adolescents aged 3–18 years.
Biological Anthropology in Poland: Its History and Short Scientific Biographies of the Contributing Professors
Katarzyna A. Kaszycka
The year 2025 marks exactly one hundred years since the founding of the Polish Anthropological Society in Poznań (November 12, 1925), initiated by Professor Adam Wrzosek of the University of Poznań, who became its first president, as well as the 150th anniversary of Adam Wrzosek’s birth. This year also marks the 120th anniversary of the establishment, on the initiative of Kazimierz Stołyhwo, of the first institution devoted to physical anthropology in Poland and the first in Eastern Europe: The Anthropological Laboratory at the Museum of Industry and Agriculture in Warsaw (1905). Year 2026 will record the centenary of the publication of the first volume of the Polish Anthropological Society journal “Przegląd Antropologiczny”, now “Anthropological Review” (1926), and the 170th anniversary of the beginning of anthropology as a university discipline (1856), considered the year when the first anthropology lectures were given at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków by Professor Józef Majer. A number of works devoted to the history of physical/biological anthropology in Poland have been documented in the literature, especially the history of individual centers, published in the 1950s on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the discipline in 1956, as well as studies on the history of Polish anthropology in a more comprehensive approach on other occasions. This article explores the history of biological anthropology in Poland, narrated mostly through short biographies of its founders – the professors whose work and achievements contributed to the development of the discipline, becoming part of the history of science. The biographical histories essentially cover the 19th and 20th centuries and include the professors who have either already made history or who have turned 75 on the date of publication of this article (born up to 1950).
This issue combines interdisciplinarity with deep reflection on human evolution, contemporary research methods, and the history of Polish anthropology. We thank all Authors and Reviewers for their invaluable contributions to the journal’s development!
The link to the issue is available HERE.
We invite you to explore texts that expand the boundaries of knowledge about the human body and its evolutionary foundations!
