化石证据支持视觉在灵长类动物新皮层的模块化进化中的作用
化石证据支持视觉在灵长类动物新皮层的模块化进化中的作用
作者： 小柯机器人 发布时间：2026/8/10 9:28:59
本期文章：《科学》：Volume 393 Issue 6811
美国得克萨斯大学E. Christopher Kirk团队取得一项新突破。他们的最新研究探明了化石证据支持视觉在灵长类动物新皮层的模块化进化中的作用。2026年8月6日出版的《科学》发表了这项成果。
课题组人员研究了现存和始新世-中新世灵长类化石的虚拟脑模型的新皮质进化。小组发现，新皮层的大小在整个灵长类分支中呈平行增长，眼镜猴和类人猿的增长迅速。虽然人们通常认为灵长类动物的额叶不成比例地扩张，但研究团队发现它是逐渐进化的，遵循一种异速缩放的共同模式。相比之下，单人猿的非额叶新皮质区域相对于大脑大小迅速增加。新皮层的扩张与视孔面积的增加同时发生，这表明视觉感觉输入在功能上与灵长类动物新皮层的模块化进化有关。
据了解，新皮层的扩张是冠类灵长类的一个关键创新，尽管关于新皮层如何进化的化石证据仍然缺乏。
附：英文原文
Title: Fossil evidence favors a role for vision in the modular evolution of the primate neocortex
Author: Richard F. Kay, Chris L. Organ, Paul E. Morse, Kari L. Allen, E. Christopher Kirk
Issue&Volume: 2026-08-06
Abstract: Neocortical expansion is a key innovation of crown primates, although fossil evidence for how the neocortex has evolved remains elusive. We studied neocortical evolution using virtual brain endocasts from extant and Eocene-Miocene fossil primates. We found that neocortex size increased in parallel across crown primate clades, with rapid increases in tarsiers and anthropoids. Although the frontal lobe is commonly described as having expanded disproportionately in primates, we show that it evolved gradually, following a common pattern for allometric scaling. By contrast, nonfrontal neocortical regions underwent rapid increases relative to brain size in haplorhines. Neocortical expansion occurred in concert with increases in optic foramen area, suggesting that visual sensory inputs are functionally tied to modular evolution of the primate neocortex.
DOI: aee3541
Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aee3541