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

少数科学家认为，从中国收集的200万年前的牙齿化石是非洲以外人类存在的最早证据。然而，许多科学家不同意这一观点，他们认为人类是在150万年前离开非洲的，并认为这些牙齿属于已经灭绝的猩猩。这项研究是与中国科学院（CAS）的金长柱博士合作进行的，采用了最先进的统计学方法，即地貌学，来评估这些牙齿实际上是人类还是猿类。金博士亲自参与了许多这些化石的发掘工作，那么中国呢？他是研究已灭绝猿类的权威。在拍摄牙齿表面的照片后，记录它们彼此之间的共同特征的位置，提供样本之间的距离数据。它们更接近的群体将决定它们是属于现存的还是灭绝的人类或猩猩。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，而且比之前认为的要早50万年。最近的出版物根据分离的牙齿化石，提出了200万年前中国南方早期人类存在的证据。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。这类研究的结果往往与早期非洲古人类的牙齿尺寸重叠。为了更精确地确定这些标本的系统发育，将对归属于以下古人类类群的后牙列咬合表面的二维数字照片进行地貌学分析：陆丰猿人，已灭绝的庞戈人，不确定的人猿，不确定的人猿，直立人，以及历史上归属于中国早期人猿或南方古猿的牙齿；都住在北京中科院。该奖项由国家科学基金会与中国科技部联合资助。

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.