中更新世非洲Bodo人类头骨化石与周口店直立人的比较——中国与非洲人类头骨特征对比之三

人类学学报 ›› 2004, Vol. 23 ›› Issue (02): 119-129.

中更新世非洲Bodo人类头骨化石与周口店直立人的比较——中国与非洲人类头骨特征对比之三

刘武,吴秀杰,张银运

出版日期:2004-06-15 发布日期:2004-06-15

The comparisons between the middle pleistocene human cranium from Bodo, ethiopia and the Homo erectus of Zhoukoudian

LIU Wu; WU Xiu-jie; ; ZHANG Yin-yun

Online:2004-06-15 Published:2004-06-15

摘要/Abstract

摘要： 发现于埃塞俄比亚MiddleAwash地区Bodo地点距今60万年的人类头骨化石是迄今发现的最为古老和完整的非洲中更新世人类化石。由于Bodo头骨化石在形态特征上兼有直立人与智人的特点，多年来学术界对其分类地位一直存在争议。Rightmire认为Bodo头骨化石与BrokenHill及Petralona等在分类上属于古老型智人的中更新世人类更为接近，是非洲直立人向古老型智人过渡的代表。至少在距今60万年的中更新世早期直立人向古老型智人转变的成种事件在非洲就已经发生。以Bodo头骨为代表的一批更新世中期非洲和欧洲人类化石构成了可能是后期人类祖先的人属海德堡种。这些观点导致了近年学术界对古老型智人在非洲及欧亚出现时间以及更新世中期非洲和欧亚地区古人类相互之间演化关系的关注。基于这样的背景，本文对年代与Bodo化石接近的周口店直立人头骨特征与Bodo头骨的相似及差异表现情况进行了对比研究。结果发现Bodo头骨在一系列特征上与周口店直立人相似，同时在包括颅容量在内的其它一些特征上呈现出后期智人的特点，但总体形态上似乎与直立人更为相似。作者认为尽管这种进化上的镶嵌现象在中国古人类化石记录上也广泛存在，但由于中国人类化石标本在年代上的不确定性，目前还没有可靠的证据说明这种集直立人与智人化石特征为一体的镶嵌性在中国古人类化石出现的时间接近或早于非洲。考虑到中国与非洲直立人生存年代的巨大差异及人类演化的不同步或地区间差异，具有较多后期人类特征表现的人类首先出现在非洲是完全可能的。根据这些研究对比，作者就人类演化的镶嵌现象、更新世中期非洲与亚洲地区人类演化上的差异等问题进行了讨论。

关键词: 人类演化;直立人;古老型智人;Bodo;周口店

Abstract: The cranium found at Bodo of Middle Awash area in Ethiopia is derived from Middle Pleis-tocene deposits with the age about 0.6 Ma. The Bodo cranium is the most complete and oldest Middle Pleistocene human fossil ever found in the world. Because both the morphological features of Homo erectus and Homo sapiens can be identified on the Bodo cranium, the affinity of Bodo cranium has been in debate.Rightmire believes that the Bodo cranium with more resemblance to the archaic Homo sapiens of Broken Hill and Petralona is the representative of the transitions from Homo erectus to archaic Homo sapiens in Africa. At least as early as 0.6 Ma the speciation event of the transition from Homo erectus to the archaic Homo sapiens happened in Africa,which is much earlier than in Asia and Europe. The human fossils represented by the Bodo cranium and otherMiddle Pleistocene specimens form Africa and Europe constitute an assemblage of Homo heidelbergensis,which may be the direct ancestor of later humans. These opinions led to the discussions of the emergence time of the archaic Homo sapiens in Africa and Eurasia, and the relationship between the humans of Middle Pleistocene in Africa and Eurasia.
For this background, in this paper the comparisons of morphological features between the Bodo cranium and the Homo erectus of Zhoukoudian were carried out. Out results show that several feature of the Bodo cranium resemble those of Zhoukoudian Homo erectus. Some other features including the cra-nial capacity exhibits the patterns of later Homo sapiens. In its overall morphology, the Bodo cranium seems to be closer to Homo erectus. The authors believe that even though the morphological mosaic pattern of human evolution can be found in the human fossil records of China, the uncertainty of the ages of Chinese human fossils makes no reliable evidence to demonstrate contemporary or earlier occurrence of the mosaic pattern of Homo erectus and archaic Homo sapiens as in Africa. Taking the big time gap of between African and Asian Homo erectus, and the unsynchronism and regional variations of human evolution into considerations, it is possible for the humans with more advanced features first appeared in Africa. Based on the comparisons in the present study, the mosaic patterns in the human evolution, and the differences of the Middle Pleistocene human evolution in Africa and Asia are discussed.

Key words: Human evolution; Homo erectus; Archaic Homo sapiens; Bodo; Zhoukoudian

刘武,吴秀杰,张银运. 中更新世非洲Bodo人类头骨化石与周口店直立人的比较——中国与非洲人类头骨特征对比之三[J]. 人类学学报, 2004, 23(02): 119-129.

LIU Wu; WU Xiu-jie; ; ZHANG Yin-yun. The comparisons between the middle pleistocene human cranium from Bodo, ethiopia and the Homo erectus of Zhoukoudian[J]. Acta Anthropologica Sinica, 2004, 23(02): 119-129.