现代人的出现与扩散——中国的化石证据

自2002年在周口店附近的田园洞发现大约4万年前的现代人化石以来,相继在湖北郧西黄龙洞、广西崇左智人洞等地点发现了早期现代人化石。这些化石发现证实大约10万年前早期现代人在华南地区已经出现。最近在湖南道县福岩洞发现的人类牙齿化石及相关研究进一步揭示具有完全现代形态的人类8万-12万年前在华南局部地区已经出现;而在这个时间段的华北地区,以许家窑人为代表的人类化石形态仍较原始,其演化尚未进入早期现代人阶段。这些研究发现提示,在中国地区,华南是现代人形成与扩散的中心区域,早期现代人以及完全现代类型的人类都可能首先在华南地区出现,然后向华北地区扩散。现有的化石形态证据显示,更新世晚期华南地区人类具有较大的演化变异,可能同时生存有几种不同的演化类群。智人洞属于从古老型智人向现代人演化的过渡类型,而道县则代表着演化进入完全现代类型的人类。基于前人研究及本文的分析,作者认为柳江、资阳、丽江、田园洞等更新世晚期人类化石特征比较进步,在演化上属于与道县相似的现代类型人类。值得注意的是,这些研究进展在引起对现代人在东亚地区出现和扩散关注的同时,古人类学界对其中涉及的许多问题还存在争论。本文在回顾分析这些研究进展的基础上,就相关问题进行了讨论。

Emergence and dispersal of modern humans: The fossil evidence from China

Since the discovery of the modern human fossils dated to about 40 ka BP at the Tianyuan Cave near Zhoukoudian in 2002, early modern human fossils have been found from several other sites in China including Huanglong Cave in Yunxi, Hubei Province and Zhiren Cave in Chongzuo, Guangxi. The findings of these human fossils indicate that early modern humans emerged about 100 ka BP in southern China. The recent discovery and related studies of human teeth at the Fuyan Cave in Daoxian, Hunan Province, further reveal that human groups with fully modern morphology appeared 120 ka-80 ka BP in some regions of southern China. At the same time, in northern China, human groups represented by Xujiayao still kept primitive morphology and did not evolve into early moderns. These research findings suggest that southern China is the central area for the formation and dispersal of modern humans in East Asia. Both early modern humans and fully modern humans probably first emerged in southern China, and then dispersed north. Available fossil evidence shows that Late Pleistocene humans in southern China exhibit pronounced variations and several different evolutionary groups may exist. The Zhiren Cave humans belong to the transitional type from archaic to early moderns; the Daoxian humans represent humans with fully modern morphology. Based on previous studies and analysis of the present paper, the authors believe that Late Pleistocene humans of Liujiang, Ziyang, Lijiang and Tianyuan Cave show more derived fossil morphologies and may represent a type of modern human similar to Daoxian. It is noteworthy that while this kind of research attracts attention to the issue of East Asian modern human emergence and dispersals, paleoanthropological communities have different opinions on this topic.