人們常用“出嫁”一詞指代女性婚配,，一些女性也確實會嫁到較遠的地方。一項新研究顯示,，這種風俗可能在人類遠祖南方古猿的社會中就已存在,。古生物學家在南非考察了南方古猿生活過的兩個山洞，發(fā)現(xiàn)其中大多數(shù)女性都是“外來戶”,。
由德國、美國和英國研究者組成的科考小組,，在6月2日出版的新一期英國《自然》周刊上報告說,，該小組對南非兩個山洞中出土的一些南方古猿化石進行了分析，重點研究其牙齒化石中的鍶同位素含量,。
一些幼年動物的牙齒在生長時會攝入當?shù)丨h(huán)境中的鍶,，因此其含量特征是由幼年所處地域決定的,。不同地域環(huán)境中的鍶同位素含量特征并不一樣，可以由此判斷牙齒化石所屬者是從小就生活在化石出土地,，還是從“他鄉(xiāng)”遷移至此,。
分析結(jié)果顯示，在這兩個山洞的南方古猿當中,，約90％的男性成員是從小生活在當?shù)?，而女性中超過半數(shù)來自外地，可以推斷是“出嫁”過來的,。
南方古猿是人類早期遠祖,，本次研究中所用的化石測年結(jié)果在約200萬年前。參與研究的英國牛津大學教授朱麗葉·李－索普教授說,，研究者對南方古猿的社會特征一直了解不多,，本次研究提供了難得的直接證據(jù)，有助于探索遠古人類先祖的若干生活特性,。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原文出處：
Nature DOI:10.1038/nature10149
Strontium isotope evidence for landscape use by early hominins
Sandi R. Copeland; Matt Sponheimer; Darryl J. de Ruiter; Julia A. Lee-Thorp; Daryl Codron; Petrus J. le Roux; Vaughan Grimes; Michael P. Richards
Ranging and residence patterns among early hominins have been indirectly inferred from morphology1, 2, stone-tool sourcing3, referential models4, 5 and phylogenetic models6, 7, 8. However, the highly uncertain nature of such reconstructions limits our understanding of early hominin ecology, biology, social structure and evolution. We investigated landscape use in Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus from the Sterkfontein and Swartkrans cave sites in South Africa using strontium isotope analysis, a method that can help to identify the geological substrate on which an animal lived during tooth mineralization. Here we show that a higher proportion of small hominins than large hominins had non-local strontium isotope compositions. Given the relatively high levels of sexual dimorphism in early hominins, the smaller teeth are likely to represent female individuals, thus indicating that females were more likely than males to disperse from their natal groups. This is similar to the dispersal pattern found in chimpanzees9, bonobos10 and many human groups11, but dissimilar from that of most gorillas and other primates12. The small proportion of demonstrably non-local large hominin individuals could indicate that male australopiths had relatively small home ranges, or that they preferred dolomitic landscapes.
