图尔卡纳湖生态环境和人类演化

The Ecological Environment of Lake Turkana and Human Evolution

以环境变化为出发点去探讨人类演化是一种新兴的研究方法.生态环境、气候、东非裂谷的地质运动都对古人类演化有着深刻的影响.早期的古人类化石许多都发现在东非裂谷湖边,以裂谷湖的生态变化为出发点去审视古人类演化,无疑具有创新性意义.东非裂谷湖中图尔卡纳湖处于一个关键地段,笔者通过对古人类化石发掘地的统计分析,提出了图尔卡纳湖人类起源假说,将人类起源地设定在东非的图尔卡纳湖可以合理地解释人类演化的许多重要问题.探讨图尔卡纳湖盆地的古环境变化,对研究人类起源与演化有着重要意义.

A novel research method is to explore human evolution with environmental change as a starting point.The ecological environment,climate,and the geological movement of the East African Rift have a profound influence on the evolution of hominid.Many of the early hominid fossils were found by the East African rift lake.It is of undoubtedly innovative significance to inspect the evolution of hominid from the ecological changes of rift lake.The East African rift lake,Lake Turkana locates in a key area.After statistical analysis of hominid fossils discovered by Lake Turkana,we have proposed a hypothesis that Lake Turkana is the origin of human,and many important issues in human evolution can be reasonably explained with the origin of human set in Lake Turkana.Therefore,the investigation of the palaeoenvironmental changes in Lake Turkana basin is of great significance to the study of the origin and evolution of human beings.