PNAS：早期人类身体尺寸与形状的进化

摘要 : 西班牙马德里康普顿斯大学通过描述来自西班牙Sima de los Huesos(SH)化石组的身体尺寸与形状的特性

西班牙马德里康普顿斯大学通过描述来自西班牙Sima de los Huesos(SH)化石组的身体尺寸与形状的特性，科研人员报告说，证据表明尼安德特人的特点并不是同时出现的，而是在一个进化的镶嵌模式之后出现的，一些身体部分的进化变化早于另一些变化。Sima de los Huesos(SH)是一个中更新世遗址，有着迄今发现的最多的一批颅下骨骼，即颅骨之外的骨骼部分。Juan Luis Arsuaga及其同事描述了Sima de los Huesos(SH)颅下骨骼的身体样式的特征，发现Sima de los Huesos(SH)的个体相对较高、具有宽的、肌肉发达的身体，以及比尼安德特人更小的大脑身体质量比。Sima de los Huesos(SH)的人类与尼安德特人共有许多未见于现代人的解剖特征，对颅下骨骼的分析表明，Sima de los Huesos(SH)的人类是之后的尼安德特人的一个姊妹群体。某些来源于尼安德特人的特征没有出现在Sima de los Huesos(SH)的人群中，这表明了这些特征并不是同时出现的。这组作者说，Sima de los Huesos(SH)为我们提供了有关在现代人出现之前的100万年间早期人类的一般身体形状和尺寸的见解。

原文链接：

Postcranial morphology of the middle Pleistocene humans from Sima de los Huesos, Spain

原文摘要：

Current knowledge of the evolution of the postcranial skeleton in the genus Homo is hampered by a geographically and chronologically scattered fossil record. Here we present a complete characterization of the postcranium of the middle Pleistocene paleodeme from the Sima de los Huesos (SH) and its paleobiological implications. The SH hominins show the following: (i) wide bodies, a plesiomorphic character in the genus Homo inherited from their early hominin ancestors; (ii) statures that can be found in modern human middle-latitude populations that first appeared 1.6–1.5 Mya; and (iii) large femoral heads in some individuals, a trait that first appeared during the middle Pleistocene in Africa and Europe. The intrapopulational size variation in SH shows that the level of dimorphism was similar to modern humans (MH), but the SH hominins were less encephalized than Neandertals. SH shares many postcranial anatomical features with Neandertals. Although most of these features appear to be either plesiomorphic retentions or are of uncertain phylogenetic polarity, a few represent Neandertal apomorphies. Nevertheless, the full suite of Neandertal-derived features is not yet present in the SH population. The postcranial evidence is consistent with the hypothesis based on the cranial morphology that the SH hominins are a sister group to the later Neandertals. Comparison of the SH postcranial skeleton to other hominins suggests that the evolution of the postcranium occurred in a mosaic mode, both at a general and at a detailed level.

doi: 10.1073/PNAS.1514828112

作者：Juan-Luis Arsuaga

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