Out of African and Dispersal into Eurasia by Hominoids from the Paleontological Perspective.

这项研究的重点是中新世人类作为人类前身的进化，特别是在他们走出非洲并散布到欧亚大陆的那些时代。在非洲，首席调查员Y.Kurimatsu对肯尼亚的中新世灵长类化石进行了研究。他进一步扩展了前人的研究，分析了东非中新世早期的古人类和古猿化石。在欧亚大陆，研究重点是亚洲中新世的古人类化石。此前已知的亚洲中新世古人类化石主要是来自印度和巴基斯坦的西北虎，以及来自云南省西南部中国的陆丰山龙。虽然现存的亚洲类人猿，如长臂猿和猩猩生活在东南亚，但对化石类人族的研究在该地区一直很少见。然而，最近在泰国中新世发现了新的古人类化石，该地区的古人类化石研究正在进行中。Y·库尼姆塔苏分析了亚洲的…更多中新世人类化石，与脊椎动物古生物学、古地磁地层学和沉积学等其他研究领域的研究人员合作。多亏了塞萨洛尼基亚里士多德大学的G.Koufos教授，Yukimatsu还有机会调查了希腊的Ouranopithecus macedoniens化石。这种大型的类人猿化石是在希腊中新世早期发现的，被认为与非洲和欧亚大陆之间的类人猿灵长类动物的扩散密切相关。除了对灵长类化石的调查外，intraspecificvariationofextantprimatemorphology还以日本猕猴为例进行了研究，因为了解现存类群的形态变化对于解释化石至关重要。一批优秀的日本猕猴(Macaca Fuscata)骨学收藏现已在日本上市。较少

This study has focused on the evolution of the Miocene hominoids as precursors of humans, especially in those ages when they went out of Africa and dispersed into Eurasia. In Africa, the head investigator (Y.Kunimatsu) has conducted his research on the Miocene fossil primates in Kenya. He extended his previous research further, and analyzed fossils of hominoids and cercopithecoids from the early Middle Miocene of East Africa.In Eurasia, the study emphasized the research of Asian Miocene hominoid fossils. Previously known Miocene fossil hominoids in Asia are mainly Sivapithecus from India and Pakistan, and Lufengpithecus from Yunnan Province, southwestern China. Although extant Asian hominoids like gibbons and orangutans live in Southeast Asia, studies of fossil hominoids have been rare in this region. Recently, however, new hominoid fossils have been recovered from the Miocene of Thailand, and fossil hominoid study in this region is now going to develop. Y.Kunimtasu analyzed the Asian … More Miocene hominoid fossils, in cooperation with researchers of other fields of research such as vertebrate paleontology, paleomagnetostratigraphy, and sedimentology.Thanks to the courtesy of Prof.G.Koufos of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Y.Kunimatsu also had an opportunity to investigate the fossils of Ouranopithecus macedoniensis from Greece. This large fossil hominoid is known from the early Late Miocene of Greece, and is considered to be closely related to the dispersal of hominoid primates, which occurred between Africa and Eurasia. Y.Kunimatsu observed and measured the O.macedoniensis specimens and compared them with the East African Miocene hominoids.In addition to the investigations of primate fossils, intraspecificvariationofextantprimatemorphology was also examined by using Japanese macaques as a model case, because understanding the morphological variations of extant taxa is crucial in interpreting fossils. An excellent osteological collection of Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) is now available in Japan. Less