瑞士苏黎世大学Christoph P. E. Zollikofer等合作发现，来自德马尼西的早期人类延长生长的牙齿证据。该项研究成果发表在2024年11月13日出版的《自然》上。

据介绍，人类生命史的特点是一段很长的不成熟时期，在此期间，大脑和躯体的生长速度不一致。这种个体发生模式被认为是在大脑还在发育的时候，在复杂的社会环境中获得高级认知能力所必需的。关于这种模式何时以及如何进化的关键信息，可以从古人类的牙齿化石中收集到，因为牙齿的发展反映了生命史的节奏。

研究人员展示了向延长生长阶段的第一个进化步骤发生在至少1.77百万年前，早于大脑体积大幅增加之前。研究人员利用同步加速器相衬断层成像技术，追踪了来自格鲁吉亚德马尼西的一个亚成年早期人的牙列的微观结构发育。个体在11.4±0.6岁时死亡，就在牙齿发育成熟前的几年。牙齿的生长速度很高，与现存的类人猿相似。

然而，德马尼西个体表现出与人类相似的后牙列相对于前牙列的延迟形成，以及整个牙列的延迟生长。牙齿个体发育的类人猿和类人猿特征的独特结合表明，早期人类在生命史上普遍放缓之前，已经进化出了一个较长的生长阶段，这可能与生物文化繁殖有关，而不是与大脑发育有关。

附：英文原文

Title: Dental evidence for extended growth in early Homo from Dmanisi

Author: Zollikofer, Christoph P. E., Beyrand, Vincent, Lordkipanidze, David, Tafforeau, Paul, Ponce de Len, Marcia S.

Issue&Volume: 2024-11-13

Abstract: Human life history is characterized by an extended period of immaturity during which there is a disjunction between cerebral and somatic growth rates1. This mode of ontogeny is thought to be essential for the acquisition of advanced cognitive capabilities in a socially complex environment while the brain is still growing2. Key information about when and how this pattern evolved can be gleaned from the teeth of fossil hominins because dental development informs about the pace of life history3,4,5. Here we show that the first evolutionary steps towards an extended growth phase occurred in the genus Homo at least 1.77million years ago, before any substantial increase in brain size. We used synchrotron phase-contrast tomography6 to track the microstructural development of the dentition of a subadult early Homo individual from Dmanisi, Georgia. The individual died at the age of 11.4±0.6years, shortly before reaching dental maturity. Tooth growth rates were high, similar to rates in living great apes. However, the Dmanisi individual showed a human-like delayed formation of the posterior relative to the anterior dentition, and a late growth spurt of the dentition as a whole. The unique combination of great-ape-like and human-like features of dental ontogeny suggests that early Homo had evolved an extended growth phase before a general slow-down in life history, possibly related to biocultural reproduction7 rather than brain growth.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08205-2

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08205-2