Ackermann Rebecca Rogers, Cheverud James M
Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 Dec 28;101(52):17946-51. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0405919102. Epub 2004 Dec 16.
Recent paleoanthropological discoveries reveal a diverse, potentially speciose human fossil record. Such extensive morphological diversity results from the action of divergent evolutionary forces on an evolving lineage. Here, we apply quantitative evolutionary theory to test whether random evolutionary processes alone can explain the morphological diversity seen among fossil australopith and early Homo crania from the Plio-Pleistocene. We show that although selection may have played an important role in diversifying hominin facial morphology in the late Pliocene, this is not the case during the early evolution of the genus Homo, where genetic drift was probably the primary force responsible for facial diversification.
最近的古人类学发现揭示了一个多样的、可能种类丰富的人类化石记录。这种广泛的形态多样性是由不同的进化力量作用于一个不断进化的谱系所导致的。在这里，我们应用定量进化理论来检验仅随机进化过程是否能够解释上新世 - 更新世时期南方古猿和早期人类颅骨化石中所观察到的形态多样性。我们表明，尽管选择可能在上新世晚期人类面部形态多样化过程中发挥了重要作用，但在人属早期进化过程中并非如此，在这一时期，遗传漂变可能是导致面部多样化的主要力量。
