Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China; Chinese Academy of Sciences Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Beijing, 100044, China.
Institute of Global Environmental Change, Xi'an Jiaotong University, 710049 Xi'an, China.
J Hum Evol. 2021 Dec;161:103052. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.103052. Epub 2021 Sep 30.
Late Middle Pleistocene hominins in Africa displaying key modern morphologies by 315 ka are claimed as the earliest Homo sapiens. Evolutionary relationships among East Asian hominins appear complex due to a growing fossil record of late Middle Pleistocene hominins from the region, reflecting mosaic morphologies that contribute to a lack of consensus on when and how the transition to modern humans transpired. Newly discovered 300 ka hominin fossils from Hualongdong, China, provide further evidence to clarify these relationships in the region. In this study, facial morphology of the juvenile partial cranium (HLD 6) is described and qualitatively and quantitatively compared with that of other key Early, Middle, and Late Pleistocene hominins from East Asia, Africa, West Asia, and Europe and with a sample of modern humans. Qualitatively, facial morphology of HLD 6 resembles that of Early and Middle Pleistocene hominins from Zhoukoudian, Nanjing, Dali, and Jinniushan in China, as well as others from Java, Africa, and Europe in some of these features (e.g., supraorbital and malar regions), and Late Pleistocene hominins and modern humans from East Asia, Africa, and Europe in other features (e.g., weak prognathism, flat face and features in nasal and hard plate regions). Comparisons of HLD 6 measurements to group means and multivariate analyses support close affinities of HLD 6 to Late Pleistocene hominins and modern humans. Expression of a mosaic morphological pattern in the HLD 6 facial skeleton further complicates evolutionary interpretations of regional morphological diversity in East Asia. The prevalence of modern features in HLD 6 suggests that the hominin population to which HLD 6 belonged may represent the earliest pre-modern humans in East Asia. Thus, the transition from archaic to modern morphology in East Asian hominins may have occurred at least by 300 ka, which is 80,000 to 100,000 years earlier than previously recognized.
被认为是最早的智人的非洲晚更新世人类，在 31.5 万年前就表现出了关键的现代形态。由于东亚人类化石记录的不断增加，东亚人类的进化关系显得十分复杂，这反映出镶嵌形态导致人们对何时以及如何发生向现代人的过渡缺乏共识。中国华龙洞新发现的 30 万年前人类化石为该地区的这些关系提供了进一步的证据。在这项研究中，对幼年部分颅骨（HLD 6）的面部形态进行了描述，并与来自东亚、非洲、西亚和欧洲的其他关键的早、中、晚更新世人类以及现代人类样本进行了定性和定量比较。从定性上看，HLD 6 的面部形态与中国周口店、南京、大理和金牛山的早更新世和中更新世人类以及爪哇、非洲和欧洲的其他人类在一些特征上（如眶上和颧骨区域）相似，而与东亚、非洲和欧洲的晚更新世人类和现代人类在其他特征上（如弱凸颌、扁平脸以及鼻和硬腭区域的特征）相似。HLD 6 的测量值与组平均值的比较和多元分析都支持 HLD 6 与晚更新世人类和现代人类的密切亲缘关系。HLD 6 面部骨骼中镶嵌形态模式的表达进一步使东亚地区形态多样性的进化解释变得复杂。HLD 6 中存在现代特征，这表明 HLD 6 所属的人类种群可能代表了东亚最早的前现代人。因此，东亚古人类向现代形态的转变可能至少发生在 30 万年前，比之前认为的要早 8 万年至 10 万年。
