Thiranagama R, Chamberlain A T, Wood B A
Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Jaffna, Kokuvil, Sri Lanka.
Folia Primatol (Basel). 1991;57(4):181-90. doi: 10.1159/000156585.
The ontogeny and comparative anatomy of the forelimb superficial veins were investigated in humans, non-human primates and other mammals. Adult humans and the orangutan (Pongo) possess two autonomous forelimb veins, one on the lateral (preaxial) margin of the limb, the other on the medial (postaxial) margin. All other adult primates and mammals examined possess a lateral vein alone. In African apes (Pan and Gorilla) and in 24% of human forelimbs the lateral vein is short, being essentially confined to the antebrachial region, whereas in other mammals and in 76% of human limbs the lateral vein runs from the carpus to the clavicular region. In humans the medial vein develops before the lateral vein, whereas in the rabbit and the pig the medial vein is present in early embryos but is subsequently lost. We propose that in humans, and probably also in the orangutan, the possession of a medial vein is a neotenic retention of a primitive tetrapod condition. These animals, which retain their medial vein, are united by losing a late stage in their ontogeny. Other animals subsequently pass through a stage in which the medial vein is lost, but Pongo and Homo retain this vein to adulthood. The loss of an ontogenetic stage can arise independently, and the presence of a medial vein therefore affords only weak evidence for a close phylogenetic relationship between humans and the orangutan. The polymorphic lateral vein of humans may be a character state that is intermediate between the derived (short) lateral vein of the African apes and the primitive long lateral vein of other non-human primates and mammals.
对人类、非人类灵长类动物和其他哺乳动物前肢浅静脉的个体发生和比较解剖学进行了研究。成年人类和猩猩（猩猩属）拥有两条自主的前肢静脉，一条位于肢体的外侧（轴前）边缘，另一条位于内侧（轴后）边缘。所有其他被检查的成年灵长类动物和哺乳动物仅拥有一条外侧静脉。在非洲猿（黑猩猩属和大猩猩属）以及24%的人类前肢中，外侧静脉较短，基本局限于前臂区域，而在其他哺乳动物以及76%的人类肢体中，外侧静脉从腕部延伸至锁骨区域。在人类中，内侧静脉比外侧静脉发育得早，而在兔子和猪中，内侧静脉在早期胚胎中存在，但随后消失。我们提出，在人类以及可能在猩猩中，内侧静脉的存在是原始四足动物状态的幼态保留。这些保留内侧静脉的动物在个体发育过程中通过失去一个后期阶段而联系在一起。其他动物随后会经历一个内侧静脉消失的阶段，但猩猩和人类保留这条静脉直至成年。个体发育阶段的丧失可能独立出现，因此内侧静脉的存在仅为人类与猩猩之间密切的系统发育关系提供了微弱的证据。人类多态性的外侧静脉可能是一种特征状态，介于非洲猿的衍生（短）外侧静脉与其他非人类灵长类动物和哺乳动物的原始长外侧静脉之间。
