近日，美国芝加哥大学Zeresenay Alemseged团队报道了阿法尔化石显示了傍人的广泛分布和多样性。2026年1月21日出版的《自然》杂志发表了这项成果。

埃塞俄比亚东北部的阿法尔洼地蕴藏着丰富的古生物学及考古学记录，见证了600万年的人类演化历程。大量动物群证据表明，古环境变化是驱动演化的主要潜在力量。现今已知的多数早期古人类类群均发现于阿法尔地区，但傍人属长期以来在该区域明显缺失。

研究组报道在米勒-洛亚研究区发现了一件傍人属部分下颌骨化石，其年代测定为250万至290万年前，出土层位具有明确的年代学与动物群背景。该标本属于迄今发现最古老的傍人属化石之一，表明这一属种自已知最早出现时期就具有比以往认知更广阔的地理分布。傍人属常被视为以坚硬食物为生的食性特化类群，而该发现将其与东非多种栖息环境相关联，证明这种假定的适应性生态位并未限制其扩散能力——其分布范围可与南方古猿属及早期人属物种同样广泛。阿法尔地区傍人属的发现凸显出研究组对东非关键时期（300万至250万年前）古人类演化的认知仍非常有限，而该时期正是傍人属与人属谱系可能分化的关键阶段。

附：英文原文

Title: Afar fossil shows broad distribution and versatility of Paranthropus

Author: Alemseged, Zeresenay, Spoor, Fred, Reed, Denn, Barr, W. Andrew, Geraads, Denis, Bobe, Ren, Wynn, Jonathan G.

Issue&Volume: 2026-01-21

Abstract: The Afar depression in northeastern Ethiopia contains a rich palaeontological and archaeological record, which documents 6million years of human evolution. Abundant faunal evidence links evolutionary patterns with palaeoenvironmental change as a principal underlying force1. Many of the earlier hominin taxa recognized today are found in the Afar, but Paranthropus has been conspicuously absent from the region. Here we report on the discovery, in the Mille-Logya research area, of a partial mandible that we attribute to Paranthropus, dated to between 2.5 and 2.9million years ago and found in a well-understood chronological and faunal context. The find is among the oldest fossils attributable to Paranthropus and indicates that this genus, from its earliest known appearance, had a greater geographic distribution than previously documented2. Often seen as a dietary specialist feeding on tough food, the range of diverse habitats with which eastern African Paranthropus can now be associated shows that this suggested adaptive niche did not restrict its ability to disperse as widely as species of Australopithecus and early Homo. The discovery of Paranthropus in the Afar emphasizes how little is known about hominin evolution in eastern Africa during the crucial period between 3 and 2.5million years ago, when this genus and the Homo lineage presumably emerged.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09826-x

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09826-x