Human evolution, migration, and adaptation in the Last Glacial environments
2025/11/27 by Qiaomei Fu · 1 citation
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Adaptation (eye) #Climate change #Ectotherm #Glacial period #Meltwater #Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Primate Behavior and Ecology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1360/csb-2025-5524
crossref issued 2025/11/27 · crossref published 2025/11/27 · crossref published-online 2025/11/27 · openalex publication_date 2025/11/27 · openalex created_date 2025/12/04 · crossref created 2025/12/04 · crossref published-print 2026/07/01 · crossref deposited 2026/08/03 · crossref indexed 2026/08/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Abstract
末次冰期是塑造现代人起源与演化格局的关键阶段，该时期千年尺度的全球性或区域性气候突变，干湿和冷暖交替事件，以至冰盖扩张、海平面下降、植被带迁移等地理环境变化，在驱动现代人迁徙扩散活动、催生其技术文化创新及塑造其遗传多样性和适应性演化特征方面发挥着重要作用。现代人面对这些严峻气候与环境压力所展示出的强大适应能力，亦成为理解现代人较之其他已灭绝古人类群体生存和演化优势的重要窗口。 近年来，古DNA技术和研究的发展，使研究人员能够通过提取测序考古遗址中人类和动植物遗骸、沉积物及文化遗存里残留的DNA片段，重建冰期生态系统，追踪世界各区域首批现代人出现的确切证据，追溯冰盛期、冰消期、博林暖期等关键气候变化时间节点下人群的迁徙扩散、规模变化与基因流动模式，识别与寒冷适应、免疫反应、代谢调节等相关的适应性遗传变异的来源、传播路径与自然选择历程等，这些为探究现代人在末次冰期走出非洲、跨大陆快速迁徙扩张的时空路径，在欧亚大陆不同环境压力选择下的适应性演化历程带来全新的视角。 基于此，本文拟综合古DNA证据与考古学、古环境学和现代遗传学等多学科交叉数据，深入解读现代人在末次冰期这一关键阶段适应环境的文化策略与遗传机制，了解现代人如何通过灵活的迁徙、工具技术的改进、社会组织结构的优化等一系列生存策略，有效拓展生存空间并缓解环境压力，以及如何通过遗传变异、自然选择和基因交流等机制，逐渐调整其基因组成和生理结构，获得不断增强的适应能力和丰富的遗传多样性，由此亦为探讨这些演化过程对当代人类健康的影响及应对未来环境的变化提供重要启示。
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