Yokley Todd R, Churchill Steven E
Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA.
J Hum Evol. 2006 Dec;51(6):603-16. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2006.07.006. Epub 2006 Jul 21.
The morphology of the proximal ulna has been shown to effectively differentiate archaic or premodern humans (such as Homo heidelbergensis and H. neanderthalensis) from modern humans (H. sapiens). Accordingly, the morphology of adjacent, articulating elements should be able to distinguish these two broad groups as well. Here we test the taxonomic utility of another portion of the elbow, the distal humerus, as a discriminator of archaic and modern humans. Principal components analysis was employed on a suite of log-raw and log-shape distal humeral measures to examine differences between Neandertal and modern human distal humeri. In addition, the morphological affinities of Broken Hill (Kabwe) E.898, an archaic human distal humeral fragment from the middle Pleistocene of Zambia, and five Pliocene and early Pleistocene australopith humeri were assessed. The morphometric analyses effectively differentiated the Neandertals from the other groups, while the Broken Hill humerus appears morphologically similar to modern human distal humeri. Thus, an archaic/modern human dichotomy-as previously reported for proximal ulnar morphology-is not supported with respect to distal humeral morphology. Relative to australopiths and modern humans, Neandertal humeri are characterized by large olecranon fossae and small distodorsal medial and lateral pillars. The seeming disparity in morphological affinities of proximal ulnae (in which all archaic human groups appear distinct from modern humans) and distal humeri (in which Neandertals appear distinct from modern humans, but other archaic humans do not) is probably indicative of a highly variable, possibly transitional population of which our knowledge is hampered by sample-size limitations imposed by the scarcity of middle-to-late Pleistocene premodern human fossils outside of Europe.
近端尺骨的形态已被证明能够有效地区分古代或现代人类（如海德堡人、尼安德特人）与现代人类（智人）。因此，相邻的关节元件的形态也应该能够区分这两大类人群。在这里，我们测试肘部另一部分——肱骨远端作为古代和现代人类区分标志的分类学效用。对一组未经处理和经过形状处理的肱骨远端测量数据进行主成分分析，以检验尼安德特人和现代人类肱骨远端的差异。此外，还评估了赞比亚中更新世的古代人类肱骨远端碎片布罗肯希尔（卡布韦）E.898以及五个上新世和早更新世南方古猿肱骨的形态相似性。形态测量分析有效地将尼安德特人与其他群体区分开来，而布罗肯希尔肱骨在形态上似乎与现代人类肱骨远端相似。因此，关于肱骨远端形态，并不支持如之前报道的近端尺骨形态那样的古代/现代人类二分法。相对于南方古猿和现代人类，尼安德特人的肱骨特征是鹰嘴窝大，远端背侧内侧和外侧支柱小。近端尺骨（所有古代人类群体似乎都与现代人类不同）和肱骨远端（其中尼安德特人与现代人类不同，但其他古代人类则不然）在形态相似性上的明显差异，可能表明存在一个高度可变、可能处于过渡阶段的种群，而我们对其的了解因欧洲以外中更新世至晚更新世古代人类化石稀缺所导致的样本量限制而受到阻碍。
