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论文标题：Snapshots of human anatomy, locomotion, and behavior from Late Pleistocene footprints at Engare Sero, Tanzania

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作者：Kevin G. Hatala, William E. H. Harcourt-Smith et.al

发表时间：2020/05/14

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本周发表的一篇论文Snapshots of human anatomy, locomotion, and behavior from Late Pleistocene footprints at Engare Sero, Tanzania 描述了非洲人类化石记录中迄今最大规模的足迹遗存。这一发现表明古代人类社会存在劳动分工现象，增进了我们对晚更新世时期（12.6万至1.17万年前）人类生活的理解。

美国查塔姆大学的Kevin Hatala和同事在坦桑尼亚的Engare Sero发现了408个人类足迹，这个遗址之前是由附近马赛部落的成员发现的。研究人员进行的测年显示，这些足迹可以追溯到1.91万年至5760年前。根据足迹的大小、间隔以及朝向，作者认为有17条足迹是由一群人以步行速度朝着西南方共同前进时留下的。这群人中可能有14名成年女性、2名成年男性和1名幼年男性。作者推断，留下足迹的女性当时一起外出觅食，并得到了男性的看望或陪同——这些行为在现代狩猎采集者中依然存在，比如阿奇人和哈扎人。研究结果或表明古代人类社会存在基于性别的劳动分工。

在Engare Sero地区保存的人类足迹示意图。

图片来源：Hatala et.al

对于另外六条东北朝向的足迹，作者推断其速度差异较大，或显示了它们不是一群同行的人留下的，而是由不同的人以不同的奔跑和行走速度留下的。

研究结果从一个侧面反应了晚更新世时期生活在东非的现代人的行动和群体行为。

摘要：Fossil hominin footprints preserve data on a remarkably short time scale compared to most other fossil evidence, offering snapshots of organisms in their immediate ecological and behavioral contexts. Here, we report on our excavations and analyses of more than 400 Late Pleistocene human footprints from Engare Sero, Tanzania. The site represents the largest assemblage of footprints currently known from the human fossil record in Africa. Speed estimates show that the trackways reflect both walking and running behaviors. Estimates of group composition suggest that these footprints were made by a mixed-sex and mixed-age group, but one that consisted of mostly adult females. One group of similarly-oriented trackways was attributed to 14 adult females who walked together at the same pace, with only two adult males and one juvenile accompanying them. In the context of modern ethnographic data, we suggest that these trackways may capture a unique snapshot of cooperative and sexually divided foraging behavior in Late Pleistocene humans.

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