Journal of Human Evolution最新文献

{"title":"Evidence for the smallest fossil Pongo in southern China","authors":"Hua Liang ,&nbsp;Terry Harrison ,&nbsp;Qingfeng Shao ,&nbsp;Jean-Jacques Bahain ,&nbsp;Jinyou Mo ,&nbsp;Yuexing Feng ,&nbsp;Wei Liao ,&nbsp;Wei Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103507","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103507","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The rarity of <em>Pongo</em> fossils with precise absolute dating from the Middle Pleistocene hampers our understanding of the taxonomy and spatiotemporal distribution of Quaternary orangutans in southern China. Here, we report a newly discovered sample of 113 isolated teeth of fossil <em>Pongo</em> from Zhongshan Cave in the Bubing Basin, Guangxi, southern China. We describe the <em>Pongo</em> specimens from Zhongshan Cave and compare them metrically to other samples of fossil <em>Pongo</em> species (i.e., <em>Pongo weidenreichi</em>, <em>Pongo devosi</em>, <em>Pongo duboisi</em>, <em>Pongo palaeosumatrensis</em>, <em>Pongo javensis</em>, and <em>Pongo</em> sp.) and to extant orangutans (i.e., <em>Pongo pygmaeus</em> and <em>Pongo abelii</em>). The Zhongshan <em>Pongo</em> assemblage is dated using U-series and coupled electron spin resonance/U-series methods. Our results reasonably constrain the Zhongshan <em>Pongo</em> assemblage to 184 ± 16 ka, which is consistent with the biostratigraphic evidence. The Zhongshan <em>Pongo</em> teeth are only 6.5% larger on average than those of extant <em>Pongo</em>. The Zhongshan teeth are smaller overall than those of <em>Pongo</em> from all other cave sites in southern China, and they currently represent the smallest fossil orangutans in southern China. Based on their dental size, and the presence of a well-developed lingual pillar and lingual cingulum on the upper and lower incisors, an intermediate frequency of lingual cingulum remnants on the upper molars, and a higher frequency of moderate to heavy wrinkling on the upper and lower molars, we provisionally assign the Zhongshan fossils to <em>P</em>. <em>devosi</em>. Our results confirm earlier claims that <em>P. weidenreichi</em> is replaced by a smaller species in southern China, <em>P. devosi</em>, by the late Middle Pleistocene. The occurrence of <em>P</em>. <em>devosi</em> in Zhongshan Cave further extends its spatial and temporal distribution. The <em>Pongo</em> specimens from Zhongshan provide important new evidence to demonstrate that the dental morphological features of <em>Pongo</em> in southern China changed substantially during the late Middle Pleistocene.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":54805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Evolution","volume":"189 ","pages":"Article 103507"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139986577","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Relative leg-to-arm skeletal strength proportions in orangutans by species and sex","authors":"Alexandra E. Kralick ,&nbsp;Babette S. Zemel ,&nbsp;Clara Nolan ,&nbsp;Phillip Lin ,&nbsp;Matthew W. Tocheri","doi":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103496","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103496","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Among extant great apes, orangutans climb most frequently. However, Bornean orangutans (<em>Pongo pygmaeus</em>) exhibit higher frequencies of terrestrial locomotion than do Sumatran orangutans (<em>Pongo abelii</em>). Variation in long bone cross-sectional geometry is known to reflect differential loading of the limbs. Thus, Bornean orangutans should show greater relative leg-to-arm strength than their Sumatran counterparts. Using skeletal specimens from museum collections, we measured two cross-sectional geometric measures of bone strength: the polar section modulus (Zpol) and the ratio of maximum to minimum area moments of inertia (Imax/Imin), at the midshaft of long bones in Bornean (<em>n</em> = 19) and Sumatran adult orangutans (<em>n</em> = 12) using medical CT and peripheral quantitative CT scans, and compared results to published data of other great apes. Relative leg-to-arm strength was quantified using ratios of femur and tibia over humerus, radius, and ulna, respectively. Differences between orangutan species and between sexes in median ratios were assessed using Wilcoxon rank sum tests. The tibia of Bornean orangutans was stronger relative to the humerus and the ulna than in Sumatran orangutans (<em>p</em> = 0.008 and 0.025, respectively), consistent with behavioral studies that indicate higher frequencies of terrestrial locomotion in the former. In three Zpol ratios, adult female orangutans showed greater leg-to-arm bone strength compared to flanged males, which may relate to females using their legs more during arboreal locomotion than in adult flanged males. A greater amount of habitat discontinuity on Borneo compared to Sumatra has been posited as a possible explanation for observed interspecific differences in locomotor behaviors, but recent camera trap studies has called this into question. Alternatively, greater frequencies of terrestriality in <em>Pongo pygmaeus</em> may be due to the absence of tigers on Borneo. The results of this study are consistent with the latter explanation given that habitat continuity was greater a century ago when our study sample was collected.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":54805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Evolution","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 103496"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139984547","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"New remains of the Miocene great ape Anoiapithecus brevirostris from Abocador de Can Mata","authors":"David M. Alba ,&nbsp;Florian Bouchet ,&nbsp;Josep Fortuny ,&nbsp;Josep M. Robles ,&nbsp;Jordi Galindo ,&nbsp;Àngel H. Luján ,&nbsp;Salvador Moyà-Solà ,&nbsp;Clément Zanolli","doi":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103497","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103497","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Evolution","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 103497"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139945104","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A comparative study of muscle activity and synergies during walking in baboons and humans","authors":"François Druelle ,&nbsp;Marco Ghislieri ,&nbsp;Pablo Molina-Vila ,&nbsp;Brigitte Rimbaud ,&nbsp;Valentina Agostini ,&nbsp;Gilles Berillon","doi":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103513","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103513","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Bipedal locomotion was a major functional change during hominin evolution, yet, our understanding of this gradual and complex process remains strongly debated. Based on fossil discoveries, it is possible to address functional hypotheses related to bipedal anatomy, however, motor control remains intangible with this approach. Using comparative models which occasionally walk bipedally has proved to be relevant to shed light on the evolutionary transition toward habitual bipedalism. Here, we explored the organization of the neuromuscular control using surface electromyography (sEMG) for six extrinsic muscles in two baboon individuals when they walk quadrupedally and bipedally on the ground. We compared their muscular coordination to five human subjects walking bipedally. We extracted muscle synergies from the sEMG envelopes using the non-negative matrix factorization algorithm which allows decomposing the sEMG data in the linear combination of two non-negative matrixes (muscle weight vectors and activation coefficients). We calculated different parameters to estimate the complexity of the sEMG signals, the duration of the activation of the synergies, and the generalizability of the muscle synergy model across species and walking conditions. We found that the motor control strategy is less complex in baboons when they walk bipedally, with an increased muscular activity and muscle coactivation. When comparing the baboon bipedal and quadrupedal pattern of walking to human bipedalism, we observed that the baboon bipedal pattern of walking is closer to human bipedalism for both baboons, although substantial differences remain. Overall, our findings show that the muscle activity of a non-adapted biped effectively fulfills the basic mechanical requirements (propulsion and balance) for walking bipedally, but substantial refinements are possible to optimize the efficiency of bipedal locomotion. In the evolutionary context of an expanding reliance on bipedal behaviors, even minor morphological alterations, reducing muscle coactivation, could have faced strong selection pressure, ultimately driving bipedal evolution in hominins.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":54805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Evolution","volume":"189 ","pages":"Article 103513"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139936860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"New craniodental fossils of Paranthropus robustus from Kromdraai, South Africa (2014–2017 excavations)","authors":"José Braga ,&nbsp;Frederick E. Grine","doi":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103481","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103481","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Since the initial discovery of <em>Paranthropus robustus</em> at the site of Kromdraai in 1938, the hypodigm of this species has been expanded by subsequent work at the localities of Swartkrans and Drimolen, with a few fossils also known from Cooper's D, Gondolin and Sterkfontein Member 5. Beginning in 2014, systematic excavations at Kromdraai uncovered a large and previously unknown fossiliferous area, shedding light on Units O and P in the earliest part of the site's stratigraphic sequence. The aim of this paper is to provide detailed descriptions and illustrations of 30 <em>P</em>. <em>robustus</em> craniodental specimens recovered between 2014 and 2017 within the Unit P deposits at Kromdraai. This new sample predates all prior conspecific specimens found at this site (including the holotype of <em>P. robustus</em> from Kromdraai, TM 1517). Its basic dental morphology dimensions and cranial features are compared in a preliminary analysis with other <em>P. robustus</em> samples. The <em>P. robustus</em> sample from Kromdraai Unit P documents previously unknown portions of the <em>P. robustus</em> juvenile cranium. The new dental and cranial remains aid in the exploration of potential morphological distinctions between site-specific <em>P. robustus</em> samples and are compared favorably in size and morphology with the small <em>P. robustus</em> specimens from Drimolen (e.g., DNH 7). These findings do not support the hypothesis that the specimens from Drimolen belong to a different taxonomic group. Instead, they reinforce the presence of a significant degree of sexual dimorphism within <em>P. robustus</em>. The Kromdraai Unit P specimens also contribute to the biodemographic profile of <em>P. robustus</em>. The notable prevalence of infants (i.e., juvenile individuals before the emergence of their first permanent molars) mirrors the natural mortality profiles observed in wild chimpanzees. This suggests a closer resemblance in the processes of accumulation in Kromdraai Unit P and Drimolen than at Swartkrans.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":54805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Evolution","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 103481"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139915334","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effect of binocular visual cue availability on fruit and insect grasping performance in two cheirogaleids: Implications for primate origins hypotheses","authors":"Addison D. Kemp","doi":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103456","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103456","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Forward-facing eyes with parallel optic axes, which provide a wide field of binocular vision and precise depth perception, are among the diagnostic features of crown primates; however, the adaptive significance of this feature remains contentious. Two of the most prominent primate-origins hypotheses propose that either foraging for fruit or nocturnal predation on insects created selective pressures that led to the evolution of diagnostic primate traits, including a wide binocular field. To determine whether either of these hypotheses provides a viable explanation for the evolution of primates' derived eye orientation, the importance of binocular depth cues for the two tasks invoked by these hypotheses was evaluated experimentally in <em>Microcebus murinus</em> and <em>Cheirogaleus medius</em>, cheirogaleids' considered reasonable living analogs of the earliest euprimates. Performance in grasping insects and fruit was evaluated when the animals made use of their full binocular visual field and when their binocular visual field was restricted using a helmet-mounted blinder. Restriction of the binocular field had no effect on fruit grasping performance; however, restriction of the binocular field resulted in a significant deficit in insect predation performance. Differences in behavioral variables also suggest that insect predation is a more visually demanding task than fruit foraging. These results support the role of insect predation, but not fruit foraging, in contributing to the selective pressures that led to the evolution of parallel optic axes and a wide binocular field in crown primates.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":54805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Evolution","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 103456"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139694422","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Charles Kimberlin (Bob) Brain (1931–2023): Scientist of consequence, man of quality","authors":"Travis Rayne Pickering","doi":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103457","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103457","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Evolution","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 103457"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248423001367/pdfft?md5=b4e33f2103805d026a2dcbb2f2ffe953&pid=1-s2.0-S0047248423001367-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139662961","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Using machine learning on new feature sets extracted from three-dimensional models of broken animal bones to classify fragments according to break agent","authors":"Katrina Yezzi-Woodley ,&nbsp;Alexander Terwilliger ,&nbsp;Jiafeng Li ,&nbsp;Eric Chen ,&nbsp;Martha Tappen ,&nbsp;Jeff Calder ,&nbsp;Peter Olver","doi":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103495","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103495","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Distinguishing agents of bone modification at paleoanthropological sites is an important means of understanding early hominin evolution. Fracture pattern analysis is used to help determine site formation processes, including whether hominins were hunting or scavenging for animal food resources. Determination of how these behaviors manifested in ancient human sites has major implications for our biological and behavioral evolution, including social and cognitive abilities, dietary impacts of having access to in-bone nutrients like marrow, and cultural variation in butchering and food processing practices. Nevertheless, previous analyses remain inconclusive, often suffering from lack of replicability, misuse of mathematical methods, and/or failure to overcome equifinality. In this paper, we present a new approach aimed at distinguishing bone fragments resulting from hominin and carnivore breakage. Our analysis is founded on a large collection of scanned three-dimensional models of fragmentary bone broken by known agents, to which we apply state of the art machine learning algorithms. Our classification of fragments achieves an average mean accuracy of 77% across tests, thus demonstrating notable, but not overwhelming, success for distinguishing the agent of breakage. We note that, while previous research applying such algorithms has claimed higher success rates, fundamental errors in the application of machine learning protocols suggest that the reported accuracies are unjustified and unreliable. The systematic, fully documented, and proper application of machine learning algorithms leads to an inherent reproducibility of our study, and therefore our methods hold great potential for deciphering when and where hominins first began exploiting marrow and meat, and clarifying their importance and influence on human evolution.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":54805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Evolution","volume":"187 ","pages":"Article 103495"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139675883","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sex-biased sampling may influence Homo naledi tooth size variation","authors":"Lucas K. Delezene ,&nbsp;Jeremiah E. Scott ,&nbsp;Joel D. Irish ,&nbsp;Amelia Villaseñor ,&nbsp;Matthew M. Skinner ,&nbsp;John Hawks ,&nbsp;Lee R. Berger","doi":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103490","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103490","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span>A frequent source of debate in paleoanthropology concerns the taxonomic unity of fossil assemblages, with many hominin samples exhibiting elevated levels of variation that can be interpreted as indicating the presence of multiple species. By contrast, the large assemblage of hominin fossils from the Rising Star cave system, assigned to </span><em>Homo naledi</em>, exhibits a remarkably low degree of variation for most skeletal elements. Many factors can contribute to low sample variation, including genetic drift, strong natural selection, biased sex ratios, and sampling of closely related individuals. In this study, we tested for potential sex-biased sampling in the Rising Star dental sample. We compared coefficients of variation for the <em>H. naledi</em><span><span> teeth to those for eight extant hominoid samples. We used a resampling procedure that generated samples from the </span>extant taxa that matched the sample size of the fossil sample for each possible Rising Star dental sex ratio. We found that variation at four </span><em>H. naledi</em> tooth positions—I₂, M₁, P⁴, M₁<span>—is so low that the possibility that one sex is represented by few or no individuals in the sample cannot be excluded. Additional evidence is needed to corroborate this inference, such as ancient DNA or enamel proteome data, and our study design does not address other potential factors that would account for low sample variation. Nevertheless, our results highlight the importance of considering the taphonomic history of a hominin assemblage and suggest that sex-biased sampling is a plausible explanation for the low level of phenotypic variation found in some aspects of the current </span><em>H</em>. <em>naledi</em> assemblage.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":54805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Evolution","volume":"187 ","pages":"Article 103490"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139546285","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"New Neanderthal remains from Axlor cave (Dima, Biscay, northern Iberian Peninsula)","authors":"Shara E. Bailey ,&nbsp;Tom W. Davies ,&nbsp;Mykolas D. Imbrasas ,&nbsp;Talia Lazuen ,&nbsp;Jean-Jacques Hublin ,&nbsp;Jesus González-Urquijo","doi":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103483","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103483","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Evolution","volume":"187 ","pages":"Article 103483"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139543925","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}