菲律宾山洞内发现人类新亲属

Bones, teeth found in Philippine cave could be new species of human, researchers say

研究人员表示,菲律宾山洞内发现疑似人类新物种的骨骼和牙齿

Fossil bones and teeth belonging to at least three individuals found in a cave in the Philippines have revealed a new species of human that walked the earth nearly 50,000 years ago, researchers say.

研究人员说,菲律宾山洞内发现了至少是三个人的骨骼及牙齿化石,这些化石显示早在5万年前就已经出现了可以行走的人类新物种。

Based on bone and teeth fragments found on the island of Luzon, researchers say our distant cousins stood less than 4-ft tall and had several ape-like features. The bones that were found – from the feet, hands and thighs - are human and from a previously undiscovered species.

研究人员还说,这些骨骼及牙齿化石是在菲律宾吕宋岛上的山洞内发现的,是我们人类的原始亲属,他们站起来不到4英尺高,有几个特征类似于猿人。这些骨骼皆为人类骨骼,发现的骨骼中有脚,手,和大腿,是之前从未发现过的物种。

Archeologist Armand Salvador Mijares made the first discovery in 2007. He was digging in the Callao Cave and found a toe bone.

考骨学家Armand Salvador Mijares是第一个发现新物种骨骼的,2007年他在卡加廷洞穴挖掘出一个脚趾骨。

“There’s something peculiar with this bone,” he told NPR and then continued digging.

他对美国国家公共电台说,“这个骨骼很怪异”,之后他继续挖掘,想找到更多新的发现。

The find is another reminder that we, Homo sapiens, are the only surviving member of our branch on the evolutionary tree. It’s also a reminder that we’ve had company for most of our existence.

这一发现提醒我们,在整个智人进化树上,我们人类是唯一得以延续下来的分枝,同时也提醒我们,在很久以前,还有很多跟我们相似的物种与我们同在。

Expert Matthew Tocheri of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, says the discovery also makes the understanding of human evolution in Asia “messier, more complicated and whole lot more interesting.”

加拿大安大略省桑德贝湖首大学专家Matthew Tocheri说,“这一发现让我们明白了亚洲的人类进化较为复杂,也让人觉得整个人类的进化竟是如此有趣。”

In a study released Wednesday in the journal Nature, scientists describe a cache of seven teeth and six bones from at least three individuals. They were found in the cave in 2007, 2011 and 2015.

周三,《自然》杂志上的一篇研究显示,科学家们分别于2007年,2011年,2015年发现了至少三个人的骨骼,一共有7颗牙齿,6根骨头。

Tests on two samples show minimum ages of 50,000 years and 67,000 years.

科学家对两个骨骼样本做了测试,结果显示,骨龄最小的5万年,最大的是6万7千年。

The main exodus of our own species from Africa that all of today's non-African people are descended from took place around 60,000 years ago.

今天所有不是非洲人的人都是约6万年从非洲血统里延生出来的。

Analysis of the bones from Luzon led the study authors to conclude they belonged to a previously unknown member of our "Homo" branch of the family tree. One of the toe bones and the overall pattern of tooth shapes and sizes differ from what's been seen before in the Homo family, the researchers said.

研究员说,通过对吕宋岛上发现的骨骼进行分析,研究员得出结论,这些骨骼属于家庭树上智人分枝的未知成员。脚趾及牙齿外形及大小都与之前发现的智人不同。

They dubbed the creature Homo luzonensis.

科学家将其称之为人类物种。

The new species used stone tools and its small teeth suggest it might have been rather small-bodied, said one of the study authors, Florent Detroit of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.

巴黎国家自然历史博物馆的一名研究作者表示,新物种使用的骨骼工具及他们的小牙齿表明他们的体型很小。

Homo luzonensis lived in eastern Asia at around the same time as not only our species but other members of the Homo branch, including Neanderthals, their little-understood Siberian cousins the Denisovans, and the diminutive "hobbits" of the island of Flores in Indonesia.

新人类生活在亚洲东部,与此同时,不仅我们人类,还有其他智人分枝包括穴居人也生活在亚洲东部,他们几乎不知道西伯利亚丹索瓦人这一族远亲,以及在印度尼西亚弗洛雷斯岛上的小哈比人。

There's no sign that Homo luzonensis encountered any other member of the Homo group, Detroit said in an email to The Associated Press. Our species isn't known to have reached the Philippines until thousands of years after the age of the bones, he said.

Detroit在发给美联社的邮件中说,我们无从得知这些新人类是否见到过其他智人族成员,直到骨器时代的数千年后,菲律宾新人类还不知道人类的存在。

But some human relative was on Luzon more than 700,000 years ago, as indicated by the presence of stone tools and a butchered rhino dating to that time, he said. It might have been the newfound species or an ancestor of it, he said in an email.

Detroit在电子邮件中还说,石器时代的证据以及那个时期的遭杀戮的犀牛表明,吕宋岛上的一些人类亲属可以追溯到70万年前,这很可能是一项物种新发现,或者是人类的祖先。

Detroit said it's not clear how Homo luzonensis is related to other species of Homo. He speculated that it might have descended from an earlier human relative, Homo erectus, that somehow crossed the sea to Luzon.

Detroit说,尚未清楚新人类与其他智人物种有何关系,他推断这可能是早期直立人类亲属的分枝,不知怎么地,就穿洋过海到了吕宋岛上。

Homo erectus is generally considered the first Homo species to have expanded beyond Africa, and plays a prominent role in the conventional wisdom about evolution outside that continent. Some scientists have suggested that the hobbits on the Indonesian island are descended from Homo erectus.

通常,人们认为直立人最早是从非洲延生出来的,拥有常规智慧,在北美洲大陆以外的进化中起主要作用。一些科学家认为,印度尼西亚岛上的哈比人就是从直立人延生出来的。

Tocheri, who did not participate it the new report, agreed that both H. luzonensis and the hobbits may have descended from H. erectus. But he said the Philippines discovery gives new credence to an alternate view: Maybe some unknown creature other than Homo erectus also slipped out of Africa and into Europe and Asia, and later gave rise to both island species.

没有参与新报告的Tocheri认同新人类和哈比人都是从直立人延生出来的,不过,他说,菲律宾吕宋岛上的发现使得新的观点更为可信:也许有些未知生物并不是直立人,也是从非洲血统延生出来欧洲人或亚洲人,之后移居岛上,成为那里成长的新人类和哈比人。

After all, he said in an interview, remains of the hobbits and H. luzonensis show a mix of primitive and more modern traits that differ from what’s seen in H. erectus. They look more like what one what might find in Africa 1.5 to 2.5 million years ago, and which might have been carried out of that continent by the mystery species, he said.

在一次采访中他说,毕竟,哈比人遗骨和新人类遗骨显示即有远古人类特征,又有现代直立人的特征,但是还又不同于直立人。更像是150万年-250年前的非洲人,说不定还是北美洲大陆的神秘物种。

The discovery of a new human relative on Luzon might be “smoke from a much, much bigger fire,” he said.

他说,“吕宋岛上发现的人类新亲属可能是’更大的烟务弹’”。

Michael Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, said the Luzon find “shows we still know very little about human evolution, particularly in Asia.”

德国耶拿的马克斯·普朗克人类历史科学研究所的迈克尔·彼得拉利亚认为,菲律宾吕宋岛的发现表明,“我们对人类进化、特别是对亚洲的人类进化知之甚少。”

More such discoveries will probably emerge with further work in the region, which is under-studied, he said in an email.

彼得拉利亚在一封电子邮件中表示,随着该地区的进一步研究,可能会出现更多这样的发现。

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