Department of Anthropology, Washington University, Saint Louis, MO 63130
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018 Nov 20;115(47):11941-11946. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1814989115. Epub 2018 Nov 5.
Diverse developmental abnormalities and anomalous features are evident in the Pleistocene fossil record, varying from minor but rare dental, vertebral, and carpal variants to exceptional systemic disorders. There are currently 75 documented anomalies or abnormalities from 66 individuals, spanning the Pleistocene but primarily from the Late Pleistocene Middle and Upper Paleolithic with their more complete skeletal remains. The expected probabilities of finding these variants or developmental disorders vary from <5% to <0.0001%, based on either recent human incidences or relevant Pleistocene sample distributions. Given the modest sample sizes available for the skeletal or dental elements in question, especially if the samples are appropriately limited in time and geography, the cumulative multiplicative probability of finding these developmental changes is vanishingly small. These data raise questions regarding social survival abilities, differing mortuary treatments of the biologically unusual, the role of ubiquitous stress among these Pleistocene foragers, and their levels of consanguinity. No single factor sufficiently accounts for the elevated level of these developmental variants or the low probability of finding them in the available paleontological record.
在更新世化石记录中，明显存在各种发育异常和异常特征，从轻微但罕见的牙齿、脊椎和腕骨变异到罕见的全身性疾病都有。目前已经从 66 个人中记录了 75 种异常或畸形，这些人跨越了更新世，但主要来自更新世晚期的中石器时代和旧石器时代晚期，他们的骨骼遗骸更为完整。基于近期人类发病率或相关更新世样本分布，这些变异或发育障碍的预期发现概率从<5%到<0.0001%不等。鉴于所研究的骨骼或牙齿元素的样本量适中，特别是如果样本在时间和地理上适当受限，那么发现这些发育变化的累积乘法概率极小。这些数据引发了一些问题，例如社会生存能力、对生物异常的不同丧葬处理、这些更新世采集者中普遍存在的压力的作用，以及他们的近亲繁殖水平。没有单一因素能够充分解释这些发育变异的高发率，也无法充分解释在现有的古生物学记录中发现这些变异的低概率。
