一项研究发现，早期现代人和晚期古人的寿命可能相同，而且寿命不是尼安德特人灭绝的因素。Erik Trinkaus研究了化石记录，从而评估在不同的地区共存了大约15万年的这两群人的成年人死亡率。尽管这个时期带有年龄信息的残骸不多，Trinkaus发现了早期现代人和尼安德特人种群的大约同样数量的20到40岁的成年人和40岁以上的成年长者。这组作者说，几乎相同的年龄分布反映了成年人死亡率的类似模式。在晚期古人残骸中很少发现老年个体，这让一些科研人员提出尼安德特人的固有预期寿命较短，这对他们的灭亡有作用。然而，这组作者提出，如果早期现代人确实具有人口统计学的优势，这更可能是由于高一些的生育率和低一些的新生儿死亡率。这组作者警告说，现有的化石记录不能充分描述整个人群，但是这些发现提示成年人的长寿并未让现代人扩张到损害尼安德特人的程度。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原文出处：
PNAS doi: 10.1073/pnas.1018700108
Late Pleistocene adult mortality patterns and modern human establishment
Erik Trinkaus1
Abstract
The establishment of modern humans in the Late Pleistocene, subsequent to their emergence in eastern Africa, is likely to have involved substantial population increases, during their initial dispersal across southern Asia and their subsequent expansions throughout Africa and into more northern Eurasia. An assessment of younger (20–40 y) versus older (>40 y) adult mortality distributions for late archaic humans (principally Neandertals) and two samples of early modern humans (Middle Paleolithic and earlier Upper Paleolithic) provides little difference across the samples. All three Late Pleistocene samples have a dearth of older individuals compared with Holocene ethnographic/historical samples. They also lack older adults compared with Holocene paleodemographic profiles that have been critiqued for having too few older individuals for subsistence, social, and demographic viability. Although biased, probably through a combination of preservation, age assessment, and especially Pleistocene mobility requirements, these adult mortality distributions suggest low life expectancy and demographic instability across these Late Pleistocene human groups. They indicate only subtle and paleontologically invisible changes in human paleodemographics with the establishment of modern humans; they provide no support for a life history advantage among early modern humans.
