摘要
为深入探讨柳江人化石形态特征的表现特点、进化程度及其与其年代数据的吻合性,本文对柳江、山顶洞、资阳、丽江等主要中国更新世晚期人类头骨化石及1 114例全新世以来不同地区现代中国人头骨进行了对比分析,结果发现:柳江人头骨绝大多数特征的出现情况位于现代中国人的变异范围,只有极个别特征与现代人不同;柳江人头骨具有的低眶等特征也可见于其他中国更新世晚期人类化石,说明柳江人化石上保留有少量常见于更新世晚期人类的原始特征,但与其他中国更新世晚期人类,尤其是山顶洞人头骨相比,柳江人显得要现代的多;柳江人与山顶洞人之间头骨形态特征的差异以体现头骨原始性及粗硕强壮程度上的差别居多,而个别特征差异或许与气候环境适应有关。我们认为:柳江人在形态进化上与现代中国人已经非常接近,他们之间的差别非常小;柳江人与山顶洞人头骨特征表现上的差异主要反映了他们之间在演化程度上的差异,同时也在一定程度上体现了各自的生存环境;现有的形态学证据不大可能为柳江人较早的时代提供支持。
The cranial and postcranial remains found in Liujiang are the most complete and wellpreserved late Pleistocene human fossils ever unearthed in South China. Wu Rukang, who conducted the original study, suggested that even though the Liujiang fossils preserve some primitive, late Pleistocene features, a suite of modem Mongoloid features were also present. Wu considered the Liujiang human as proto-Mongoloid. However, because the exact layer that yielded the fossils is unclear and different radiometric dates exist, the age of the Liujiang fossils remains uncertain. Since the Liujiang discovery （A. D. 1958）many advances have been made in paleoanthropology, with more detailed understanding of geographical and morphological variation, and the mechanisms and possible environmental influences on the evolution of our species. New hypotheses on late Pleistocene human evolution, and the formation and differentiation of modem East Asian populations have been proposed With these new insights, the Liujiang fossils were re-examined. We proposed the following questions related to Liujiang and late Pleistocene human evolution in East Asia： （1）Does Liujiang＇ s morphological pattern fit with its suggested minimal age of 67 Ka BP; （2）Compared with modem East Asian populations, how morphologically modem are the Liujiang fossils, and how many derived traits do the Liujiang fossils still exhibit; （3）How different morphologically are the Liujiang fossils compared to the northern Zhoukoudian（＂ZKD＂） Upper Cave specimens（i, e., Upper Cave 102 and 103）, or to the modem southern Mongoloid populations？ With these questions in mind, we analyzed and compared the craniae of Liujiang and ZKD Upper Cave to affinities. Our results show： （ 1 ） The expressions 1114 modem Chinese craniae of various geographic of most cranial features on Liujiang fall within the modem range of variation, but there are a few exceptions; （2）Several primitive features like lower orbit can be observed on Liujiang, indicating that it still preserves some late Pleistocene features. However, compared to the late Pleistocene specimens from ZKD Upper Cave, the Liujiang cranium is more modem; （3）The variation between Liujiang and ZKD Upper Cave are mainly in the retention of primitive and robust features on the ZKD Upper Cave craniae. We believe that a small number of these differences may be environmental adaptations, which include the deep depressed nasion on ZKD Upper Cave and the broad nasal bones on Liujiang. Based on these findings, we suggest that the cranial morphology of Liujiang is very close to those of modem Chinese and very few differences exist between them. Concomitantly, our study does not support the supposition that the Liujiang cranium is more primitive than ZKD Upper Cave and Ziyang. Since uncertainty exists of the exact provenience of the human fossils from Liujiang, and due to the similarity of the cranial morphology between Liujiang and modem Chinese, we suggest that the current morphological analysis does not support the earlier age（67 Ka BP）for the Liujiang human fossils.
出处
《人类学学报》
CSCD
北大核心
2006年第3期177-194,共18页
Acta Anthropologica Sinica
基金
国家自然科学基金(49972011)
特殊学科点人才培养基金(J0530189)资助
关键词
柳江
更新世晚期
人类演化
头骨特征
Lujiang
Late Pleistocene
Human evolution
Cranial morphology
作者简介
刘武，中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所研究员，主要从事古人类学研究。E-mail：liuwu@ivpp．ac．cn
