Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain. Departamento de Paleontología, Facultad Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain.
Área de Paleontología, Departamento de Geología, Geografía y Medio Ambiente, Universidad de Alcalá, Spain.Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain.
Science. 2014 Jun 20;344(6190):1358-63. doi: 10.1126/science.1253958.
Seventeen Middle Pleistocene crania from the Sima de los Huesos site (Atapuerca, Spain) are analyzed, including seven new specimens. This sample makes it possible to thoroughly characterize a Middle Pleistocene hominin paleodeme and to address hypotheses about the origin and evolution of the Neandertals. Using a variety of techniques, the hominin-bearing layer could be reassigned to a period around 430,000 years ago. The sample shows a consistent morphological pattern with derived Neandertal features present in the face and anterior vault, many of which are related to the masticatory apparatus. This suggests that facial modification was the first step in the evolution of the Neandertal lineage, pointing to a mosaic pattern of evolution, with different anatomical and functional modules evolving at different rates.
十七件中更新世中期的颅骨来自于西班牙阿塔普尔卡的西玛德洛斯霍约斯遗址（Sima de los Huesos site），其中包括七个新标本。这个样本使得我们能够彻底描述一个中更新世古人类的种群，并解决关于尼安德特人起源和进化的假设。使用各种技术，我们得以将包含古人类化石的地层重新确定为大约 43 万年前的时期。样本显示出一致的形态模式，具有与尼安德特人相关的衍生特征，这些特征出现在面部和前颅穹窿，其中许多与咀嚼器官有关。这表明面部修饰是尼安德特人谱系进化的第一步，指向了一个镶嵌式进化模式，不同的解剖学和功能模块以不同的速度进化。
