Niewoehner W A
Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2001 Mar 13;98(6):2979-84. doi: 10.1073/pnas.041588898. Epub 2001 Feb 6.
Two groups of humans are found in the Near East approximately 100,000 years ago, the late archaic Neanderthals and the early modern Skhul/Qafzeh humans. Observations that Neanderthals were more heavily muscled, had stronger upper-limb bones, and possessed unusual shapes and orientations of some upper-limb joint complexes relative to the Skhul/Qafzeh hominids, have led some researchers to conclude that significant between-group upper-limb-related behavioral differences must have been present, despite the association of the two groups with similar Middle Paleolithic archeological complexes. A three-dimensional morphometric analysis of the hand remains of the Skhul/Qafzeh hominids, Neanderthals, early and late Upper Paleolithic humans, and Holocene humans supports the dichotomy. The Skhul/Qafzeh carpometacarpal remains do not have any unique morphologies relative to the other fossil samples remains examined. However, in the functionally significant metacarpal 1 and 3 bases they resemble Upper Paleolithic humans, not Neanderthals. Furthermore, the Skhul/Qafzeh sample differs significantly from the Neanderthals in many other aspects of hand functional anatomy. Given the correlations between changes in tool technologies and functional adaptations seen in the hands of Upper Paleolithic humans, it is concluded that the Skhul/Qafzeh hand remains were adapted to Upper Paleolithic-like manipulative repertoires. These results support the inference of significant behavioral differences between Neanderthals and the Skhul/Qafzeh hominids and indicate that a significant shift in human manipulative behaviors was associated with the earliest stages of the emergence of modern humans.
大约10万年前在近东地区发现了两组人类，即晚期古老型尼安德特人和早期现代斯虎尔/卡夫泽人。有观察表明，与斯虎尔/卡夫泽原始人类相比，尼安德特人肌肉更发达，上肢骨骼更强壮，并且一些上肢关节复合体具有不同寻常的形状和方向，这使得一些研究人员得出结论，尽管这两组人类与相似的旧石器时代中期考古遗址相关联，但两组之间在与上肢相关的行为上一定存在显著差异。对斯虎尔/卡夫泽原始人类、尼安德特人、旧石器时代晚期和早期人类以及全新世人类手部遗骸的三维形态测量分析支持了这种二分法。相对于其他已检测的化石样本遗骸，斯虎尔/卡夫泽的腕掌骨遗骸没有任何独特的形态。然而，在功能上重要的第1和第3掌骨基部，它们与旧石器时代晚期人类相似，而不是尼安德特人。此外，斯虎尔/卡夫泽样本在手部功能解剖学的许多其他方面与尼安德特人有显著差异。鉴于旧石器时代晚期人类手部工具技术变化与功能适应之间的相关性，可以得出结论，斯虎尔/卡夫泽的手部遗骸适应了类似旧石器时代晚期的操作技能。这些结果支持了尼安德特人与斯虎尔/卡夫泽原始人类之间存在显著行为差异的推断，并表明人类操作行为的重大转变与现代人类出现的最早阶段有关。
