一項研究發(fā)現(xiàn),，早期現(xiàn)代人和晚期古人的壽命可能相同,，而且壽命不是尼安德特人滅絕的因素。Erik Trinkaus研究了化石記錄,，從而評估在不同的地區(qū)共存了大約15萬年的這兩群人的成年人死亡率,。盡管這個時期帶有年齡信息的殘骸不多，Trinkaus發(fā)現(xiàn)了早期現(xiàn)代人和尼安德特人種群的大約同樣數(shù)量的20到40歲的成年人和40歲以上的成年長者,。這組作者說,，幾乎相同的年齡分布反映了成年人死亡率的類似模式。在晚期古人殘骸中很少發(fā)現(xiàn)老年個體,，這讓一些科研人員提出尼安德特人的固有預期壽命較短,，這對他們的滅亡有作用。然而,，這組作者提出,，如果早期現(xiàn)代人確實具有人口統(tǒng)計學的優(yōu)勢，這更可能是由于高一些的生育率和低一些的新生兒死亡率,。這組作者警告說,，現(xiàn)有的化石記錄不能充分描述整個人群，但是這些發(fā)現(xiàn)提示成年人的長壽并未讓現(xiàn)代人擴張到損害尼安德特人的程度,。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原文出處：
PNAS doi: 10.1073/pnas.1018700108
Late Pleistocene adult mortality patterns and modern human establishment
Erik Trinkaus1
Abstract
The establishment of modern humans in the Late Pleistocene, subsequent to their emergence in eastern Africa, is likely to have involved substantial population increases, during their initial dispersal across southern Asia and their subsequent expansions throughout Africa and into more northern Eurasia. An assessment of younger (20–40 y) versus older (>40 y) adult mortality distributions for late archaic humans (principally Neandertals) and two samples of early modern humans (Middle Paleolithic and earlier Upper Paleolithic) provides little difference across the samples. All three Late Pleistocene samples have a dearth of older individuals compared with Holocene ethnographic/historical samples. They also lack older adults compared with Holocene paleodemographic profiles that have been critiqued for having too few older individuals for subsistence, social, and demographic viability. Although biased, probably through a combination of preservation, age assessment, and especially Pleistocene mobility requirements, these adult mortality distributions suggest low life expectancy and demographic instability across these Late Pleistocene human groups. They indicate only subtle and paleontologically invisible changes in human paleodemographics with the establishment of modern humans; they provide no support for a life history advantage among early modern humans.
