EAPSI:Discerning human from non-human great ape in the southern Chinese fossil dental record

EAPSI：在中国南方化石牙齿记录中区分人类和非人类类人猿

• 批准号: 1508891
• 负责人: Toby Avalos
• 金额: $ 0.51万
• 依托单位: Avalos Toby
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-06-01 至 2016-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1508891&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAPSI; Discerning; human; non; great

A handful of scientists consider a collection of two million year old fossil teeth from China to be the earliest evidence for humans outside of Africa. However, many scientists disagree, believing instead that humans left Africa around 1.5 million years ago, and consider this collection of teeth to belong to extinct orangutans. This research, conducted in collaboration with Dr. Changzhu Jin from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), applies state of the art statistical methods, called geomorphometrics, to assess whether these teeth are in fact human or ape. Dr. Jin has been involved with the excavation of many of these fossils firsthand and is China?s authority on extinct apes. After photographs of tooth surfaces are taken, the positioning of their shared features relative to one another is recorded, providing distance data between specimens. The group with which they cluster more closely will determine whether they belong to living or extinct humans or orangutans. If these teeth are confirmed to be human, the research will provide evidence that the earliest remains for humans outside of Africa are not only found in China, but also half a million years older than previously thought.Recent publications posit evidence for early humans in southern China two million years ago based on disassociated fossil dentition. Such controversial taxonomic assignments have resulted from an overreliance on simple linear tooth crown measurements and traditional qualitative analysis. The results of these types of studies often produce dental dimensions that overlap with early African hominins. To determine a more precise phylogeny for these specimens, a geomorphometric analyses on 2-D digital photographs of the occlusal surfaces of posterior dentition attributed to the following hominid taxa will be performed: Lufengpithecus, extinct Pongo, Hominoid indeterminate, Hominin indeterminate, H. erectus, and teeth historically assigned to Chinese early Homo or Australopithecus; all housed at the CAS, Beijing. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Technology of China.

一些科学家认为，来自中国的200万年前的牙齿化石是非洲以外最早的人类证据。然而，许多科学家不同意，而是认为人类在大约150万年前离开非洲，并认为这些牙齿属于灭绝的猩猩。这项研究是与中国科学院（CAS）的Changzhu Jin博士合作进行的，采用了最先进的统计方法，称为地貌测量学，以评估这些牙齿实际上是人类还是猿。金博士参与了许多这些化石的第一手挖掘，是中国吗？在灭绝的猿类方面的权威。在拍摄牙齿表面的照片之后，记录它们的共享特征相对于彼此的定位，提供样本之间的距离数据。它们聚集在一起的群体将决定它们是否属于现存或已灭绝的人类或猩猩。如果这些牙齿被证实是人类的，这项研究将提供证据，证明非洲以外最早的人类遗骸不仅在中国发现，而且比以前认为的要早50万年。最近的出版物根据分离的化石牙齿，为中国南方200万年前的早期人类提供了证据。这种有争议的分类分配是由于过度依赖简单的线性牙冠测量和传统的定性分析。这些类型的研究结果通常会产生与早期非洲人类重叠的牙齿尺寸。为了更准确地确定这些标本的发育关系，将对以下原始人类分类群的后牙列咬合面的二维数字照片进行地貌测量分析：禄丰古猿、已灭绝的庞戈人、不确定的原始人类、不确定的原始人类、H.直立人和牙齿，历史上被认为是中国早期人属或南方古猿;都被安置在中国科学院，北京。NSF EAPSI奖是与中国科技部合作资助的。