¹Department de Biologia Animal, Secció d’Antropologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, ²Systems Analysis of Development, Centre de Regulació Genòmica, Barcelona, Spain, ³Osteologiska enheten, Stockholms Universitet, Stockholm, Sweden, ⁴Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

Friday Morning, 301D

Quantitative genetics is an important field of application for geometric morphometrics because it provides information that key for many important questions concerning the evolution of shape. In particular, the demographic information that is available for human populations make humans a unique study system. We investigate skull shape in the population of Hallstatt (Austria), where a collection of human skulls with associated records offer a unique opportunity for such studies. We use an individual-based statistical model to estimate the genetic covariance matrix, and characterize selection using fitness estimates from demographic data. We find clear evidence for directional selection, but not for nonlinear selection (stabilizing or disruptive selection). The predicted response to this selection, computed with genetic parameters from the population, does not match the estimate of secular change over the approximately 150-year range of the data. We discuss possible reasons for the mismatch.