Particulate versus integrated evolution of the upper body in late pleistocene humans: A test of two models

Evolutionary biologists are largely polarized in their approaches to integrating microevolutionary and macroevolutionary processes. Neo-Darwinians typically seek to identify population-level selective and genetic processes that culminate in macroevolutionary events. Epigeneticists and structuralists, on the other hand, emphasize developmental constraints on the action of natural selection, and highlight the role of epigenetic shifts in producing evolutionary change in morphology. Accordingly, the ways in which these paradigms view and address morphological contrasts between classes of related organisms differ. These paradigms, although seldomly explicitly stated, emerge in paleoanthropology as well. Considerations of postcranial morphological contrasts between archaic and modern humans typically fall into one of two broad interpretive models. The first derives from the neo-Darwinian perspective and holds that evolution in the postcranial skeleton was largely mosaic (operating in a particulate manner), and that temporal change in specific traits informs us about behavioral shifts or genetic evolution affecting isolated anatomical regions (i.e., adaptive behavioral inferences can be made from comparative studies of individual trait complexes). The alternative model follows from the epigeneticist paradigm and sees change in specific postcranial traits as correlated responses to change in overall body form (involving shifts in regulation of skeletal growth, or selective and developmental responses to broad adaptive shifts). By this view, integration of functional systems both constrains and directs evolution of various traits, and morphological contrasts inform us about overall change in body form related to change in such things as overall growth patterns, climatic adaptation, and technological dependency. These models were tested by confirmatory factor analysis using measures of upper body form and upper limb morphological traits in Eurasian Neandertal and early modern fossils and recent human samples. Results indicate (1) a model of morphological integration fits the data better than a model of no integration, but (2) this integration accounts for less than half of the variance in upper limb traits, suggesting a high degree of tolerance for particulate evolution in the context of an integrated upper body plan. Significant relationships were detected between joint shapes and body size, between humeral shaft shape and body size and chest shape, and between measures of biomechanical efficiency and robusticity. The observed morphological differences between late archaic and early modern humans reflect particulate evolution in the context of constraints imposed by genetic and morphological integration. While particulate approaches to interpreting the fossil record appear to be justified, attention must also be paid to delineating the nature and extent of morphological integration and its role in both constraining and producing observed patterns of variation between groups. Confirmatory factor analysis provides a means of examining trait covariance matrices, and serves as a useful method of identifying patterns of integration in morphology. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

昆明、武定地区早寒武世关山动物群的双瓣壳节肢动物

报道采自昆明、武定地区下寒武统沧浪铺阶乌龙箐组下部黄绿色页岩层中的双瓣壳节肢动物Tuzoia和Isoxys,讨论Tuzoia和Isoxys两属的特征和种群、地质、地理分布、软体附肢、分类位置、古生态及其演化趋势。详细描述关山动物群中Tuzoia和Isoxys的3种(其中2新种):TuzoiasinensisP’an,1957,T.tylodesaLuoetHusp.nov.,IsoxyswudingensisLuoetHusp.nov.,和I.sp.。     

陕南早寒武世ANABARITES壳体内部结构及亲缘关系探讨

陕南灯影组宽川铺段的小壳化石具完好的三维保存方式。Anabarites是三辐射对称、单管底栖群居生物,亲缘关系不明。作者通过对陕南宁强下寒武统宽川铺段进行数次系统采样,经过对样品的醋酸溶蚀处理和电子扫描电镜照像后,发现Anabarites壳体内部具螺旋状微结构;经测试分析后认为该结构可能与中槽的深浅成正相关,两者的形成可能与微环境中水体的变化有关。探讨其可能的亲缘关系及其演化序列。     

齿肋赤藓早期光诱导蛋白ELIPs的生物信息学分析

从齿肋赤藓转录组数据库出发,共得到39条注释的早期光诱导蛋白Sc ELIPs unigene,其中2条(Sc ELIP1与Sc ELIP2)具有完整ORF。利用多种生物信息学分析工具,对这2条Sc ELIPs序列的同源性、理化性质、保守域、信号肽、疏水性、亚细胞定位、二级结构、跨膜结构、三维结构、活性位点等方面进行分析。结果表明:2条Sc ELIPs序列的ORF全长分别为711 bp和624 bp,分别编码236和207个氨基酸,二者都具有完整的Chloroa_b-bind功能域,定位于叶绿体类囊体膜,含有3个跨膜α螺旋,第1、3螺旋通过Glu和Arg残基形成双重对称结构,且具有至少4个叶绿素结合活性位点。通过对得到的2条Sc ELIPs进行氨基酸序列比对及基因树分析,得出Sc ELIP1与小立碗藓、山墙藓及盐生杜氏藻聚为一支,而Sc ELIP2与高等植物聚为一支,表现出ELIP从低等到高等植物的进化特征。本研究为Sc ELIPs基因后续的克隆和功能研究奠定了基础。     

Herbivore‐induced plant responses in Brassica oleracea prevail over effects of constitutive resistance and result in enhanced herbivore attack

1. Plant responses to herbivore attack may have community‐wide effects on the composition of the plant‐associated insect community. Thereby, plant responses to an early‐season herbivore may have profound consequences for the amount and type of future attack. 2. Here we studied the effect of early‐season herbivory by caterpillars of Pieris rapae on the composition of the insect herbivore community on domesticated Brassica oleracea plants. We compared the effect of herbivory on two cultivars that differ in the degree of susceptibility to herbivores to analyse whether induced plant responses supersede differences caused by constitutive resistance. 3. Early‐season herbivory affected the herbivore community, having contrasting effects on different herbivore species, while these effects were similar on the two cultivars. Generalist insect herbivores avoided plants that had been induced, whereas these plants were colonised preferentially by specialist herbivores belonging to both leaf‐chewing and sap‐sucking guilds. 4. Our results show that community‐wide effects of early‐season herbivory may prevail over effects of constitutive plant resistance. Induced responses triggered by prior herbivory may lead to an increase in susceptibility to the dominant specialists in the herbivorous insect community. The outcome of the balance between contrasting responses of herbivorous community members to induced plants therefore determines whether induced plant responses result in enhanced plant resistance.     

贵阳孟关早三叠世安顺组的两个新遗迹属

记述２个新遗迹属──Ｂｉｃｏｎｃａｖｉｃｈｎｕｓ和Ｆａｓｃｉａｒｉｃｈｎｕｓ，并讨论了它们的形成方式和形成环境。化石产于贵阳市南约２０ｋｍ的孟关附近的下三叠统安顺组上部。     

安徽淮南早寒武世蠕虫化石的发现

Ｐａｌａｅｏｓｃｏｌｅｘｈｕａｉｎａｎｅｎｓｉｓｓｐ．ｎｏｖ．是我国华北地区寒武纪地层中首次发现的蠕虫化石，也是我国寒武纪地层中所发现的蠕虫化石的最高层位。     

Neandertal knees: power lifters in the Pleistocene?

It has been proposed (Trinkaus, 1983 a; Miller & Gross, 1998) that the marked thickness of Neandertal patellae and/or the posterior displacement of their tibial condyles increased their relative M. quadriceps femoris moment arms, thereby making their legs powerful in extension. However, it is necessary to compare these reflections of muscle moment arm length to appropriate measures of the body weight moment arm and body mass estimates, both of which are influenced by ecogeographically determined body proportions. Reassessment of tibial condylar displacement and patellar thickness, as well as patellar height, relative to an appropriate measure of the moment arm for the baseline load on the knee (body weight), to that moment arm times estimated body mass, and to that moment arm times a skeletal reflection of body mass (femoral head diameter) rejects the hypothesis that the Neandertals had exceptionally powerful knee extension. Relative tibial condylar displacement remains above that of a modern industrial society sample, but similar to that of the Broken Hill tibia, Late Pleistocene early modern humans and a recent human nonindustrial sample. Relative patellar thickness is similar to that of early modern humans, who have relatively thick patellae compared to the late Holocene human samples. Consequently, once body proportions are taken into account, there is little difference between the Neandertals and other later Pleistocene humans in knee extensor mechanical advantage, and all of these fossil hominids are similar in the more important proximal tibial proportions to those of nonindustrial recent humans.