现代中国人起源的实证──颅骨特征的时空变化

EVIDENCE FOR ORIGIN OF CHINESE POPULATIONS:TIME AND SPACE CHANGES OF CRANIOMETRIC TRAITS

本文用数学方法系统地检测了从早期智人到现代人时期中国人颅骨测量性特征的时空变化规律。结果显示，从早期智人到晚期智人的演化过程出现逆向变化、不连续；同时，长江以北的和长江以南的颅骨特征时态变化趋势也呈现显著差异。这两种现象的存在，揭示了现代北方的和南方的中国人可能由各自地区的早期智人演化而来。

The purpose of this study is to analyse the bine and space changes of thecraniometric traits from early Homo sapiens to modem man in China. For this study,the author collected 36 groups of human skull distributed to the north and south ofChangjiang River. The cramal specimens range from early Homo sapiens to modernman (including early Homo sapiens, late Homo sapiens, early Neolithic, fare Neolithic,Bronze age and present day). Sixteen items of the cranial measurements were used inthe analysis. The author used the Percent difference of the temporal craniometricchanges to compare and discuss the general trend of the cramal microevolution andthe origin of Chinese populations. The percent differences are used to compare levelsof the cramal changes in each other and are calculated by Frayer's formula (1984),namely subtracting the earner mean from the late mean and dividing by the earliermean. The results are shown in Table 2 to Table 6.According to the results of the analysis and the comparison, the severaldiscussions are as follows.(1) Judging from the comparison of the percentages of the temporal craniometricchanges, it can see that all of the cramal dimensions in the transition from earlyHomo sapiens to modem man, in general decrease gradually with bine except thecramal height (ba-b) and the zygomaxillary angle which increase gradually with bine.These microevolutions may be described in the following way: the cramal form isbasically the tfansition from the dolichocrany and the chamaecrany to the brachycranyand the hypsicrany. The facial form is basically the transition from the euryeny to themesony and the lepteny. The orbital form is the transition from the chamaeconchy tothe hypsiconctiy. The nasal form is basically the transition from chamaerrhiny to themesorrhiny in Neolithic and Bronze age and the leptorrhiny in modem man.To sum up, the temporal changes of the overall cramal morphology from earlyHomo sapiens to modem man tends to the continuous brachycranyzation, whilecraniofacial part is the transition from the robustious type to the gracile type.(2) The temporal changes in the cramal morphology betWeen early Homo sapiensand late Homo sapiens exist markedly the discontininty. In comparison with thetemporal changes of the cramal dimensions from early Homo sapiens to modern man,all of the horizonta dimensions of the craniofasial part in both early Homo sapiensand late Homo sapiens and late Homo sapiens tend to decrease with bine, while theupper facial height the orbital height and the masal height are gradually increase inthe transition from late Homo sap lens to modern man and are gradually decrease inthe trasition from early Homo sapiens to modem man. The most of cranialdimensions in early Homo sapiens even surpass modem man. The comparison of twomicroevolutionary systems reveals that the temporal changes in cramal morphologybetween early Homo sapiens and late Homo sapiens are disconhnuous or abruphybreak. It is may be seen that the skulls in early Homo sapiens have evidently higherand wider orbits, higher and wider upper face and less prognathous than that of theearly Homo sapiens period thereafter. On the contrary, the skulls in late Homosapiens have evidently lower upper facial height lower orbital height and lower nasalheight than that of early Neolithic period thereafter.(3) The comparison of the microevolutionary trends betWeen both areas to thesouth and north of Changjiang River also appears markedly difference. For example,the facial height and the nasal height to the south of Changjiang River tend toincrease gradually with bine and to decrease gradually with bine to the north ofChangjiang River. In addition, the facial profile angle (n- pr- FH) and thezygomaxillary angle (zm-ss-zm) tend to increase to the north of Changjiang Riverand to decrease with bine to the south of Changjiang River.To sum up, these phenomena mentioned above indicate that the populations livingin the north area and the south area must be descend from two different phylogeneticlineages. So I am inclined tp think that the modem population