Tree climbing and human evolution

Tree climbing and human evolution
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爬树与人类进化

DOI:
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发表时间:
2012
影响因子:
11.1
通讯作者:
Nathaniel J. Dominy
Nathaniel J. Dominy
中科院分区:
综合性期刊1区
文献类型:
--
作者:
V. Venkataraman;Thomas S. Kraft;Nathaniel J. Dominy

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古人类学家长期以来一直在争论早期人类的攀爬能力,以及适应陆地两足行走的脚是否限制了他们经常接近树木。然而,一些现代人经常爬上高大的树木,寻找蜂蜜,水果和游戏,通常没有工具或支持系统的帮助。与兼性树栖相关联的死亡率和发病率预期有利于促进安全和有效攀爬的行为和解剖结构。在这里,我们发现特瓦狩猎采集者在攀爬过程中使用非凡的踝关节背屈(>45°),与野生黑猩猩相似。虽然我们没有在伊图里森林的狩猎采集者标本中发现背屈的骨骼特征,但我们确实发现,相对于邻近的非攀爬农业者,通过Twa攀爬与腓肠肌中更长的纤维有关。这一结果表明,一个更开放的小腿肌肉有利于攀登与两足适应脚踝和脚的位置更接近树的攀登者,它可能是其中的机制,使狩猎采集者安全地访问树冠。鉴于我们没有发现这种观察到的行为的骨骼相关,我们的研究结果意味着,派生方面的人类踝关节与两足动物仍然兼容垂直攀登和树上资源的收购。我们的研究结果挑战了持续的树-地二分法,这种二分法为化石人类的行为重建提供了信息,并强调了使用现代人类作为推断人类树现实极限的模型的价值。
Paleoanthropologists have long argued—often contentiously—about the climbing abilities of early hominins and whether a foot adapted to terrestrial bipedalism constrained regular access to trees. However, some modern humans climb tall trees routinely in pursuit of honey, fruit, and game, often without the aid of tools or support systems. Mortality and morbidity associated with facultative arboreality is expected to favor behaviors and anatomies that facilitate safe and efficient climbing. Here we show that Twa hunter–gatherers use extraordinary ankle dorsiflexion (>45°) during climbing, similar to the degree observed in wild chimpanzees. Although we did not detect a skeletal signature of dorsiflexion in museum specimens of climbing hunter–gatherers from the Ituri forest, we did find that climbing by the Twa is associated with longer fibers in the gastrocnemius muscle relative to those of neighboring, nonclimbing agriculturalists. This result suggests that a more excursive calf muscle facilitates climbing with a bipedally adapted ankle and foot by positioning the climber closer to the tree, and it might be among the mechanisms that allow hunter–gatherers to access the canopy safely. Given that we did not find a skeletal correlate for this observed behavior, our results imply that derived aspects of the hominin ankle associated with bipedalism remain compatible with vertical climbing and arboreal resource acquisition. Our findings challenge the persistent arboreal–terrestrial dichotomy that has informed behavioral reconstructions of fossil hominins and highlight the value of using modern humans as models for inferring the limits of hominin arboreality.
DOI: 10.1115/1.3108455
发表时间: 1988-11-01
影响因子: 1.7
作者:
SIEGLER, S;CHEN, J;SCHNECK, CD
通讯作者: SCHNECK, CD