據(jù)11月14日的《科學(xué)》（Science）雜志報(bào)道說(shuō),， 一個(gè)直立人的新化石發(fā)現(xiàn)提示，該種系的雌性具有寬大的骨盆,，其功能是為了生產(chǎn)腦容量大的嬰兒。Scott W. Simpson及其同事在埃塞俄比亞找到并近乎完全地復(fù)原了一個(gè)直立人成年雌性的骨盆,。作為一種相對(duì)復(fù)雜工具的使用者，直立人被認(rèn)為是第一個(gè)離開(kāi)非洲及可能是第一個(gè)能夠掌握火的人族動(dòng)物,。
基于對(duì)一具年輕男性“Turkana Boy”的骨骼的研究，研究人員先前得出結(jié)論：直立人身材高挑,，形體消瘦，這可能是為了適應(yīng)炎炎的熱帶環(huán)境或是為了適應(yīng)耐久性跑動(dòng),。一個(gè)狹窄的雌性骨盆還意味著直立人的嬰兒在出生時(shí)腦容量相對(duì)較小,，但在出生后會(huì)急劇地生長(zhǎng),，這是一種與現(xiàn)代人嬰兒相同的特征。但是,，新發(fā)現(xiàn)的骨盆的形狀提示，直立人的嬰兒比先前認(rèn)為的要大30%,，而其產(chǎn)前腦的生長(zhǎng)速度與人類的類似，但其在產(chǎn)后腦和身體的生長(zhǎng)速度則處在黑猩猩與人類之間,。研究人員得出結(jié)論,，需要生產(chǎn)腦容量大的嬰兒是導(dǎo)致直立人雌性骨盆形成這種形狀的最初的驅(qū)動(dòng)力量。他們對(duì)為了適應(yīng)熱帶氣候或耐久性跑動(dòng)是決定該種系骨盆形狀的想法提出了懷疑,。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
Science，Vol. 322. no. 5904, pp. 1089 - 1092,，Scott W. Simpson，Sileshi Semaw
A Female Homo erectus Pelvis from Gona, Ethiopia
Scott W. Simpson,1,2 Jay Quade,3 Naomi E. Levin,4,5 Robert Butler,6 Guillaume Dupont-Nivet,7 Melanie Everett,8,9,10 Sileshi Semaw9,10*
Analyses of the KNM-WT 15000 Homo erectus juvenile male partial skeleton from Kenya concluded that this species had a tall thin body shape due to specialized locomotor and climatic adaptations. Moreover, it was concluded that H. erectus pelves were obstetrically restricted to birthing a small-brained altricial neonate. Here we describe a nearly complete early Pleistocene adult female H. erectus pelvis from the Busidima Formation of Gona, Afar, Ethiopia. This obstetrically capacious pelvis demonstrates that pelvic shape in H. erectus was evolving in response to increasing fetal brain size. This pelvis indicates that neither adaptations to tropical environments nor endurance running were primary selective factors in determining pelvis morphology in H. erectus during the early Pleistocene.
1 Department of Anatomy, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH 44106–4930, USA.
2 Laboratory of Physical Anthropology, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA.
3 Department of Geosciences/Desert Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
4 Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA.
5 Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, MC 100-23, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
6 Department of Physics, University of Portland, Portland, OR 97203–5798, USA.
7 Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 17, 3584 CD Utrecht, Netherlands.
8 Department of Geological Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47407, USA.
9 The Stone Age Institute, 1392 West Dittemore Road, Gosport, IN 47433, USA.
10 Center for Research into the Anthropological Foundations of Technology (CRAFT), Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA.
