Surprisingly rapid growth in Neanderthals
Surprisingly rapid growth in Neanderthals
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DOI：
10.1038/nature02428
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发表时间：
2004-04-29
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
de Castro, JMB
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Rozzi, FVR;de Castro, JMB
生活史特征与牙齿生长密切相关(1)，因此人属中牙齿生长的差异可以使我们确定体细胞发育如何进化，并识别需要物种级别差异的发育变化(2-4)。牙齿的生长可以通过牙釉质形成的速度（或延伸率）来确定(5,6)。我们分析了祖先人（分析了 8 颗牙齿）、海德堡人（106 颗）、尼安德特人（“尼安德特人”；146 颗）和旧石器时代晚期-中石器时代智人（100 颗）的牙釉质延伸率。在这里，我们报告旧石器时代晚期-中石器时代智人与现代人类具有相同的牙齿发育模式，但祖先和海德堡人的牙齿生长周期较短。令人惊讶的是，尼安德特人的特点是牙齿生长周期最短。由于牙齿生长是体细胞发育的一个极好的指标(1)，我们的研究结果表明，尼安德特人的发育速度甚至比他们的直系祖先海德堡人还要快。在原始人类进化过程中，从上更新世开始，牙齿生长变得更长，大脑尺寸也增大。尼安德特人尽管大脑很大，但发育周期很短。这种生长的自体变异是一种进化逆转，强烈表明了智人与尼安德特人之间的具体区别。
Life-history traits correlate closely with dental growth(1), so differences in dental growth within Homo can enable us to determine how somatic development has evolved and to identify developmental shifts that warrant species-level distinctions(2-4). Dental growth can be determined from the speed of enamel formation (or extension rate)(5,6). We analysed the enamel extension rate in Homo antecessor (8 teeth analysed), Homo heidelbergensis (106), Homo neanderthalensis ('Neanderthals'; 146) and Upper Palaeolithic-Mesolithic Homo sapiens (100). Here we report that Upper Palaeolithic-Mesolithic H. sapiens shared an identical dental development pattern with modern humans, but that H. antecessor and H. heidelbergensis had shorter periods of dental growth. Surprisingly, Neanderthals were characterized by having the shortest period of dental growth. Because dental growth is an excellent indicator of somatic development(1), our results suggest that Neanderthals developed faster even than their immediate ancestor, H. heidelbergensis. Dental growth became longer and brain size increased from the Plio-Pleistocene in hominid evolution. Neanderthals, despite having a large brain, were characterized by a short period of development. This autapomorphy in growth is an evolutionary reversal, and points strongly to a specific distinction between H. sapiens and H. neanderthalensis.