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An ancient murder-mystery
一個古老的謀殺之謎
What killed the woolly rhino?
是誰殺死了長毛犀牛?
From the moa in New Zealand to the dodo inMauritius, the arrival of humans has often spelled extinction for tasty butpreviously isolated animals. Many scientists had assumed that the woollyrhinoceros, a shaggy beast that sported an enormous horn, suffered the samefate. The animal was common in northern Europe and northern Asia 30,000 yearsago, when the first humans arrived. Shortly after, it disappeared.
從新西蘭的恐鳥到毛里求斯的渡渡鳥,人類的到來往往意味著這些美味可口但曾與世隔絕的動物將慘遭滅絕。許多科學家認為,長毛犀牛(一種身披長毛、長著巨角的動物)也遭受了同樣的命運。3萬年前,在人們最早到來之際,長毛犀牛在北歐和北亞都很常見,但不久之后就滅絕了。
But Love Dalén, a professor at the Centrefor Palaeogenetics in Stockholm, and Edana Lord, one of Dr Dalén’s PhDstudents, are not so sure. In a paper published in Current Biology, they usedata from ancient DNA to argue that, this time at least, humans might beinnocent.
但是斯德哥爾摩古基因學中心的洛夫教授及其博士生伊達娜并不認為是人類致其滅絕的。在一篇發(fā)表在《當代生物學》上的論文中,他們利用來自遠古時期DNA的數據證明,至少就這一次,人類或許被冤枉了。
Until recently, information on the fate ofthe great ice-age mammals had been limited to what could be gleaned fromfossilised bones. While useful, bones can only tell you so much. They canreveal the number of animals of different ages present at a specific locationat a specific time. With some species sex can be determined. Occasionally thecause of death can be detected.
直到最近,有關冰河時代大型哺乳動物命運的研究還僅限于從骨骼化石中收集信息。骨骼化石雖然有用,但所能得到的信息非常有限。它們可以揭示在特定時期、特定地點出現的不同年齡動物的數量。有些物種甚至可以利用骨骼化石來判斷性別,有時利用骨骼化石還能推斷出動物死因。
In the past couple of decades, though,scientists have learned to tap another, richer source of information: ancientgenomes. By itself, DNA degrades quickly, attacked by water and sunlight. ButDNA encased within bones and teeth can survive for longer, especially if thosebones and teeth are themselves encased in permafrost. It was this sort of DNAthat enabled Dr Dalén and Ms Lord to investigate the woolly rhino’sdisappearance.
不過,在過去幾十年里,科學家們學會了另一種挖掘更多信息的方式:遠古基因組。DNA在水和陽光的作用下會迅速降解。但包裹在骨骼和牙齒中的DNA可以留存恒久,尤其是當這些骨骼和牙齒還被埋藏在永久凍土中時。正是這種DNA使戴倫和洛德得以對長毛犀牛滅絕的原因展開調查。
Working with a team of colleagues, theresearchers obtained DNA from 12 woolly-rhinoceros bones collected frompermafrost in Siberia, dating from the beginning of the Late Pleistocene, about130,000 years ago, until the animals were on the verge of extinction. Extra DNAwas recovered from one sample of rhino hair and one piece of tissue found inthe stomach of a frozen wolf that had been preserved by the cold.
研究人員齊心協(xié)力從在西伯利亞永久凍土帶采集的12塊長毛犀牛骨骼中提取了DNA,這些骨骼最早可追溯至大約13萬年前的更新世晚期,最晚至長毛犀牛瀕臨滅絕之時。此外,研究人員還從一頭長毛犀牛的毛發(fā)樣本以及在一只被冰凍的狼的胃里發(fā)現的一塊長毛犀牛組織上提取到了DNA。
Analysing the genetic diversity of thesamples allowed the researchers to make a rough calculation of the size of thewoolly-rhino population over time. Rather than declining as humans arrived, thepopulation remained stable from 29,000 years ago until 18,500 years ago, just afew thousand years before the species went extinct.
通過對樣本進行遺傳多樣性分析,研究人員能夠粗略計算出長毛犀牛數量隨時間變化的趨勢。長毛犀牛的數量并沒有隨著人類的到來而減少,從2.9萬年前至1.85萬年前(此時距離長毛犀牛滅絕不過幾千年)一直保持在一個穩(wěn)定的水平。
That suggests that, far from being huntedto extinction, the rhinos co-existed stably with humans for around 10,000years. Perhaps the people who encountered the beasts found them unpalatable. Orperhaps the rhinos were simply too dangerous to hunt with their simple weapons.(They were the size of the modern white rhino, which is not an animal thattakes kindly to being stabbed with spears.)
這表明,長毛犀牛非但沒有被人類獵殺至滅絕,反而與人類共同生存近1萬年;蛟S是人們覺得長毛犀牛的肉不好吃。亦或是捕獵長毛犀牛太過危險,以致無法用簡單的武器將其獵殺。(長毛犀牛的體型與現代白犀牛相當,而用長矛根本無法對白犀牛造成傷害)。
The researchers’ case is not quiteconclusive. It is possible that some sort of technological advance eventuallygave ancient humans the ability to hunt rhinos safely, and that extinctionfollowed after that breakthrough. On the other hand, the animals’ decline linesup suggestively with a rapid bout of global warming that began around 14,700years ago. The researchers argue that this was the more likely cause of theanimal’s disappearance. This time, it seems, it was Mother Nature whodunnit.
研究人員尚未得出確切結論。或許是某項技術的進步使古人類得以安全獵殺長毛犀牛,而長毛犀牛也就隨著這項技術的突破慘遭滅絕。另一方面,1.47萬年前,全球氣候變暖趨勢急劇加速,而這一時期恰恰是長毛犀牛數量銳減之時。研究人員認為,這更有可能是長毛犀牛滅絕的原因。這一次,大自然母親或許才是真兇。
注:雙語全文源自經濟學人
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