Harvati Katerina, Frost Stephen R, McNulty Kieran P
Department of Anthropology, New York University, 25 Waverly Place, New York, NY 10003, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 Feb 3;101(5):1147-52. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0308085100. Epub 2004 Jan 26.
The taxonomic status of Neanderthals lies at the center of the modern human origins debate. Proponents of the single-origin model often view this group as a distinct species with little or no contribution to the evolution of modern humans. Adherents to the regional continuity model consider Neanderthals a subspecies or population of Homo sapiens, which contributed significantly to the evolution of early modern Europeans. Paleontologists generally agree that fossil species should be equivalent to extant ones in the amount of their morphological variation. Recognition of fossil species therefore hinges on analogy to living species. A previous study by one of the authors and recent work by other researchers [Schillachi, M. A. & Froelich, J. W. (2001) Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 115, 157-166] have supported specific status for Neanderthals based on analogy to chimpanzees and Sulawesi macaques, respectively. However, these taxa may not be the most appropriate models for Pleistocene humans. Here we test the hypothesis that Neanderthals represent a subspecies of H. sapiens by comparing the degree of their morphological differentiation from modern humans to that found within and between 12 species of extant primates. The model taxa comprised >1,000 specimens, including phylogenetic (modern humans and African apes) and ecological (eight papionin taxa) models for Pleistocene humans. Morphological distances between model taxon pairs were compared to the distances between Neanderthals and modern humans obtained by using a randomization technique. Results strongly support a specific distinction for Neanderthals.
尼安德特人的分类地位处于现代人类起源争论的核心。单一起源模型的支持者通常将这个群体视为一个独特的物种，对现代人类的进化几乎没有贡献。区域连续性模型的支持者认为尼安德特人是智人的一个亚种或种群，对早期现代欧洲人的进化有重大贡献。古生物学家普遍认为，化石物种在形态变异程度上应与现存物种相当。因此，化石物种的认定取决于与现存物种的类比。本文作者之一之前的一项研究以及其他研究人员最近的工作[Schillachi, M. A. & Froelich, J. W. (2001)《美国体质人类学杂志》115, 157 - 166]分别基于与黑猩猩和苏拉威西猕猴的类比，支持了尼安德特人的特定地位。然而，这些分类群可能不是更新世人类最合适的模型。在这里，我们通过比较尼安德特人与现代人类在形态上的分化程度，与12种现存灵长类动物种内和种间的分化程度，来检验尼安德特人代表智人一个亚种的假设。模型分类群包括1000多个标本，其中有更新世人类的系统发育模型（现代人类和非洲猿）和生态模型（8种狒狒分类群）。将模型分类群对之间的形态距离与通过随机化技术获得的尼安德特人与现代人类之间的距离进行比较。结果有力地支持了尼安德特人的特定分类地位。
