科研人員在意大利拉丁姆（Latium）南部切普拉諾（Ceprano）發(fā)現(xiàn)了一具成年人顱蓋骨化石,，法國和意大利的古生物學(xué)家對(duì)其進(jìn)行詳細(xì)和深入的研究,，所得結(jié)論發(fā)表在最新一期的《科學(xué)公共圖書館》《Public Library of Science》上。
科學(xué)家對(duì)這具被認(rèn)為是歐洲最古老的人類顱蓋骨（已經(jīng)以其發(fā)現(xiàn)地Ceprano命名）有以下一些結(jié)論：
1）Ceprano的形態(tài)特征顯示其與中更新世時(shí)期（Middle Pleistocene）歐洲地區(qū)以外的人種更相近,，或者應(yīng)該說是古歐洲人遠(yuǎn)親,，其分布范圍也非常廣泛。
2）這種形態(tài)特征的接近性表明他們?cè)诜侵藓蜌W亞大陸擴(kuò)散的時(shí)間發(fā)生在大約早/中更新世之交（Early/Middle Pleistocene boundary）（約距今78萬年前）,，并可能是一種衍生出來的獨(dú)立類群,。
3）Ceprano的顱蓋骨除了一些衍生出的特征外，其較原始的腦殼結(jié)構(gòu)很可能是保留了該類群在非洲和歐亞大陸的祖先形態(tài)特征,。
4）從這一角度考慮,，Ceprano所處的位置很可能是早更新世智人與其親戚類群或時(shí)代更近的衍生類群海德堡人（H. heidelbergensis）之間的“橋梁”，至少在系統(tǒng)發(fā)育學(xué)上應(yīng)該是這樣,。
5）以上特征和結(jié)論與Ceprano最新的年代學(xué)結(jié)果相一致（約距今43萬到38.5萬年間）,，這段時(shí)期（中更新世時(shí)期）的歐洲古人類各類群被認(rèn)為可變性非常大。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原文出處：
PLoS ONE 6(4): e18821. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018821
The Stem Species of Our Species: A Place for the Archaic Human Cranium from Ceprano, Italy
Aurélien Mounier1, Silvana Condemi1, Giorgio Manzi2,3*
1 Unité Mixte de Recherche 6578 – Unité d'Anthropologie Bioculturelle, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/Université de la Méditerranée/Etablissement Fran?ais du Sang, Marseille, France, 2 Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale, Sapienza - Universitá di Roma, Roma, Italia, 3 Istituto Italiano di Paleontologia Umana, Roma, Italia
Abstract
One of the present challenges in the study of human evolution is to recognize the hominin taxon that was ancestral to Homo sapiens. Some researchers regard H. heidelbergensis as the stem species involved in the evolutionary divergence leading to the emergence of H. sapiens in Africa, and to the evolution of the Neandertals in Europe. Nevertheless, the diagnosis and hypodigm of H. heidelbergensis still remain to be clarified. Here we evaluate the morphology of the incomplete cranium (calvarium) known as Ceprano whose age has been recently revised to the mid of the Middle Pleistocene, so as to test whether this specimen may be included in H. heidelbergensis. The analyses were performed according to a phenetic routine including geometric morphometrics and the evaluation of diagnostic discrete traits. The results strongly support the uniqueness of H. heidelbergensis on a wide geographical horizon, including both Eurasia and Africa. In this framework, the Ceprano calvarium – with its peculiar combination of archaic and derived traits – may represent, better than other penecontemporaneous specimens, an appropriate ancestral stock of this species, preceding the appearance of regional autapomorphic features.
