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This study quantifies the population history of Iron Age nomads of southern Siberia by analyzing craniofacial diversity among contemporaneous Bronze and Iron Age (7th–2nd centuries BC) groups and compares them to a larger geographic sample of modern Siberian and Central Asian populations. In our analyses, we focus on peoples of the Tagar and Pazyryk cultures, and Iron Age peoples of the Tuva region. Twenty­six cranial landmarks of the vault and facial skeleton were analyzed on a total of 461 ancient and modern individuals using geometric morphometric techniques. Male and female crania were separated to assess potential sex­biased migration patterns. We explore southern Siberian population history by including Turkic­speaking peoples, a Xiongnu Iron Age sample from Mongolia, and a Bronze Age sample from Xinjiang. Results show that male Pazyryk cluster closer to Iron Age Tuvans, while Pazyryk females are more isolated. Conversely, Tagar males seem more isolated, while Tagar females cluster amongst an Early Iron Age southern Siberian sample. When additional modern Siberian samples are included, Tagar and Pazyryk males cluster more closely with each other than females, suggesting possible sex­biased migration amongst different Siberian groups. This is evident in modern female Tuva, who cluster with modern female Kalmyk, while modern Tuvan males do not. Male and female Iron Age Tuvans are not closely related to modern Tuvan peoples living in the region today, resulting from the influx of the Xiongnu beginning in the Late Iron Age. Both male and female Pazyryk and Tagar crania appear more similar to Central Asia groups, especially the Kazakh and Uzbek samples. However, there is evidence that Tagar females have a common origin with the Yakut, a modern nomadic population that resides in northeastern Siberia. These results would suggest variable genetic contributions for both sexes from Central and East Asia.

In this study, we compare the craniofacial morphology of four Sumidouro skulls and one Lund skull of paleo South Americans from Lagoa Santa, Brazil, with worldwide prehistoric and recent human craniofacial metric data, and suggest an alternative view of the migration history of early South America. Affiliations of samples and individuals were examined by the principal coordinate plot generated by Relethford and Blangero’s R-matrix method, the neighbor-joining method based on genetic distance generated from the same R-matrix, and Mahalanobis distances and typicality probabilities. For these analyses, we examined certain variables claimed to have been influenced by the environment, such as maximum cranial length and maximum cranial breadth. Although the number of craniometric variables seems to influence the results of the analysis, it appeared to not obscure the ancestral and descendant relationships and regional kin relationships greatly in the instance of this study. Using Howells’ worldwide comparative dataset but without the Jomon sample, previous research had suggested that Brazilian Paleoamericans, the Lagoa Santa, were probably closely related to Australian Aborigines and Africans as opposed to Native Americans and Northeast Asians. On the other hand, using multivariate statistics, our results show that Lagoa Santa individuals exhibit stronger morphological affinities with the prehistoric Jomon of Japan, archaic Americans of Indian Knoll Kentucky, Windover Florida, and Tennessee, and recent Tierra del Fuegans of South America, than with the Melanesians and Australians. Moreover, Jomon, Lagoa Santa, and archaic North Americans all display close relationships and ties to each other. This suggests that the early inhabitants of South America were probably not related to Australo-Melanesians, but rather to the Late Pleistocene descendants of Northeast Asians such as the Jomon. Also, they are related to the archaic North American populations and recent Central and South Americans.

In this study, Chinese immigrant population history and structure was assessed using craniometric diversity in two historic cemeteries located in North America. Analyses addressed questions of population history, migration, and geographic origin for Chinese immigrants to the United States in the late 1800s. Craniometric diversity was assessed by the use of the R-matrix method on 19 metric traits in 62 male Chinese immigrant individuals. Using a population genetic model (Relethford–Blangero), our results indicate a low level of genetic diversity for these Chinese immigrants. Principal coordinate plots and neighbor-joining trees based on the morphological distances transformed from the R-matrix showed that the Chinese immigrant sample clusters closest to known East Asian populations. Further, we substantiate the biological origin for the Chinese immigrants as coming from South China. A historical reading suggests that the majority of Chinese emigrating to the United States departed and were born in southern China. Biological distances for the Chinese immigrants are more similar to samples from Guangdong Province and surrounding areas than to regions in North China. Identification bricks (grave markers) recovered during excavation in Nevada revealed two individuals born in Tai’shan, a city located along the Pearl River Delta and west of Hong Kong, a port used by Westerners during the late 19th century and used as a point of departure for many emigrating from mainland China. This evidence supports the historical and archaeological record and confirms the use of craniofacial variability to answer questions of population history and structure. This study is the first to assess Chinese immigrant population history using biological data.