Mounier Aurélien, Balzeau Antoine, Caparros Miguel, Grimaud-Hervé Dominique
The Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, Biological Anthropology Division, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Street, Cambridge CB2 1QH, United Kingdom; UMR 7268 ADES, Aix-Marseille Université/EFS/CNRS, Faculté de Médecine - Secteur Nord Aix-Marseille Université, CS80011, Bd Pierre Dramard, 13344 Marseille, France.
Équipe de Paléontologie Humaine, UMR 7194 du CNRS, Département de Préhistoire du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, France; Department of African Zoology, Royal Museum for Central Africa, B-3080 Tervuren, Belgium.
J Hum Evol. 2016 Mar;92:22-36. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.12.006. Epub 2016 Jan 23.
The evolutionary history of the genus Homo is the focus of major research efforts in palaeoanthropology. However, the use of palaeoneurology to infer phylogenies of our genus is rare. Here we use cladistics to test the importance of the brain in differentiating and defining Neandertals and modern humans. The analysis is based on morphological data from the calvarium and endocast of Pleistocene fossils and results in a single most parsimonious cladogram. We demonstrate that the joint use of endocranial and calvarial features with cladistics provides a unique means to understand the evolution of the genus Homo. The main results of this study indicate that: (i) the endocranial features are more phylogenetically informative than the characters from the calvarium; (ii) the specific differentiation of Neandertals and modern humans is mostly supported by well-known calvarial autapomorphies; (iii) the endocranial anatomy of modern humans and Neandertals show strong similarities, which appeared in the fossil record with the last common ancestor of both species; and (iv) apart from encephalisation, human endocranial anatomy changed tremendously during the end of the Middle Pleistocene. This may be linked to major cultural and technological novelties that had happened by the end of the Middle Pleistocene (e.g., expansion of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) in Africa and Mousterian in Europe). The combined study of endocranial and exocranial anatomy offers opportunities to further understand human evolution and the implication for the phylogeny of our genus.
人属的进化史是古人类学主要研究工作的重点。然而，利用古神经学来推断我们这个属的系统发育情况却很少见。在这里，我们使用分支系统学来检验大脑在区分和定义尼安德特人和现代人类方面的重要性。该分析基于更新世化石的颅骨和脑腔模型的形态学数据，得出了一个单一的最简约分支图。我们证明，将脑腔和颅骨特征与分支系统学结合使用，为理解人属的进化提供了一种独特的方法。这项研究的主要结果表明：（i）脑腔特征在系统发育上比颅骨特征更具信息性；（ii）尼安德特人和现代人类的具体分化主要由著名的颅骨自近裔性状支持；（iii）现代人类和尼安德特人的脑腔解剖结构显示出很强的相似性，这种相似性在化石记录中出现在这两个物种的最后共同祖先身上；（iv）除了脑量增加外，人类脑腔解剖结构在中更新世末期发生了巨大变化。这可能与中更新世末期发生的重大文化和技术创新有关（例如，非洲中石器时代（MSA）的扩张和欧洲莫斯特文化的出现）。脑腔和颅外解剖结构的综合研究为进一步理解人类进化以及对我们这个属的系统发育的影响提供了机会。
