David LORDKIPANIDZE
Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi 0105 Georgia
ABSTRACT: The site of Dmanisi, Georgia, has produced surprising evidence for the early dispersal of hominids out of Africa. Dmanisi dates to approximately 1.77 million years ago and has revealed a wealth of cranial and post-cranial hominid fossil material along with many well-preserved animal bones and quantities of stone artifacts. These fossils bring into question whether Homo erectus was the first hominid out of Africa and Homo erectus features such as relatively large body and brain sizes were necessary adaptations for this dispersal. The Dmanisi hominids have a surprising mosaic of primitive morphology such as small body and brain sizes and an absence of humeral torsion coupled with derived human-like body proportions and lower limb morphology. Postcranially they are largely comparable to earliest Homo (cf. H. habilis) and have changed our ideas in relation to the morphological correlates of hominid migration and dispersal. The Dmanisi hominid remains are the first discovered outside of Africa to show clear affinities to early Homo, they represent the missing link between Africa, Asia and Europe.
Recieved: Oct.10, 2010 Accepted: Dec.2, 2010 Corresponding: dlordkipanidze@museum.ge
《现代人类学通讯》第四卷e34篇 第190页 2010年12月16日网上发行
会议摘要
最早出非洲的人类
戴维•罗得奇帕尼兹
格鲁吉亚国立博物馆,格鲁吉亚 第比利斯 0105
摘要:格鲁吉亚的德曼尼西遗址为人类出非洲后的早期扩散提供了惊人的证据。距今约177万年的德曼尼西出土了大量的人类头盖骨和颅后骨骼化石及保存完好的许多动物骨骼及大量石制品。这些化石质疑直立人是否是最早走出非洲的古人类,直立人较大的体型和脑容量是否是适应这样的扩散所必需的。德曼尼西人有着镶嵌似的混合体征,他们有体型小、脑容量小及肱骨不能扭转等原始特征,但身体比例及下肢、胫骨又与现代人相差无几。他们的颅后特征与最早期的人类(能人)很相似,这就改变了我们原先认为的人类迁徙扩散与形态学的关联。德曼尼西人化石是在非洲以外地区发现的年代最为久远的人类遗迹,他们与早期人类有明显的相似之处,填补了人类进化历程中非洲、亚洲和欧洲间的缺环。