Humans preserve non-human primate pattern of climatic adaptation

QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS

卷:192

Article

Buck, Laura T.^1,2  De Groote, Isabelle³  Hamada, Yuzuru⁴  Stock, Jay T.^1,5 

[1] Univ Cambridge, Dept Archaeol, PAVE Res Grp, Pembroke St, Cambridge CB2 3QG, England

[2] Nat Hist Museum, Dept Earth Sci, Human Origins Res Grp, Cromwell Rd, London SW7 5BD, England

[3] Liverpool John Moores Univ, Sch Nat Sci & Psychol, James Parsons Bldg,Byrom St, Liverpool L3 3AF, Merseyside, England

[4] Kyoto Univ, Primate Res Inst, Inuyama, Aichi 4848506, Japan

[5] Western Univ, Dept Anthropol, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada

关键词: Adaptation;    Variation;    Colonisation;    Cold-adaptation;    Ecogeography;    Thermoregulation;    Macaca fuscata;    Pleistocene;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.05.032

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

There is evidence for early Pleistocene Homo in northern Europe, a novel hominin habitat. Adaptations enabling this colonisation are intriguing given suggestions that Homo exhibits physiological and behavioural malleability associated with a 'colonising niche'. Differences in body size/shape between conspecifics from different climates are well-known in mammals, could relatively flexible size/shape have been important to Homo adapting to cold habitats? If so, at what point did this evolutionary stragegy arise? To address these questions a base-line for adaptation to climate must be established by comparison with outgroups. We compare skeletons of Japanese macaques from four latitudes and find inter-group differences in postcranial and cranial size and shape. Very small body mass and cranial size in the Southern-most (island) population are most likely affected by insularity as well as ecogeographic scaling. Limb lengths and body breadths show group differences that accord with the expectations of thermoregulation across the whole range of latitudes. Postcranial size appears to vary more than shape, yet there is also evidence that limb segments follow Allen's rule in the forelimb at least, suggesting differing climatic signals in different regions of the skeleton. In contrast to other intraspecific studies of catarrhine ecogeography, the results presented here demonstrate non-allometric latitudinal patterns in craniofacial shape in Japanese macaques, which align closely with what is seen in cold-adapted humans. These insights begin to provide a comparison for hominin adaptation to similar habitat diversity and the role of biological adaptation in shaping the evolution and dispersal of Homo species. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

【 授权许可】

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