Brain, calvarium, cladistics: A new approach to an old question, who are modern humans and Neandertals?
Brain, calvarium, cladistics: A new approach to an old question, who are modern humans and Neandertals?
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DOI：
10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.12.006
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发表时间：
2016-03-01
影响因子：
3.2
通讯作者：
Grimaud-Herve, Dominique
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Mounier, Aurelien;Balzeau, Antoine;Grimaud-Herve, Dominique
人属的进化史是古人类学研究的重点。然而，使用古神经学来推断我们属的进化是罕见的。在这里，我们使用分支系统来测试大脑在区分和定义尼安德特人和现代人方面的重要性。分析是基于更新世化石的头盖骨和内铸型的形态学数据，并在一个单一的最简约的cladogram.We的结果表明，endocranial和头盖骨的功能与分支的联合使用提供了一个独特的手段来了解属人的进化。本研究的主要结果表明：（i）颅内特征比颅骨特征更能提供遗传学信息;（ii）尼安德特人与现代人的特异性分化主要由已知的颅骨自形特征所支持;（iii）现代人与尼安德特人的颅内解剖结构具有很强的相似性，这在化石记录中与两个物种最后的共同祖先出现;（iv）在中更新世末期，除了脑化外，人类颅内解剖结构也发生了巨大变化。这可能与中更新世末发生的重大文化和技术创新有关（例如，非洲中石器时代（MSA）的扩张和欧洲的Mousterian）。颅内外解剖学的联合研究为进一步了解人类进化和我们属的进化提供了机会。(C)2015爱思唯尔有限公司版权所有。
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. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.