美国国家公共电台 NPR Ancient Bone Reveals Surprising Sex Lives Of Neanderthals

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Scientists said today that they have made a surprising discovery about prehistoric¹ sex. Researchers say that they have found direct evidence that different types of human-like ancestors were mating with each other. NPR's Laurel Wamsley has the story.

LAUREL WAMSLEY, BYLINE²: In the Altai mountains of southern Siberia, there's a cave that was inhabited for millennia³. It overlooks a river valley good for hunting, and it's called Denisova. Svante Paabo has been there.

SVANTE PAABO: The main chamber⁴ is very high - 20, 25 meters - and have a little hole in the ceiling. So lights come in from above. It's almost church-like.

WAMSLEY: Paabo is a geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary⁵ Anthropology⁶ in Germany. Back in 2010, he and his colleagues took from the cave a bone fragment - a shard⁷ of a pinkie bone - and extracted and sequenced its DNA⁸. What they discovered was a previously⁹ unknown branch of the human family tree, a group they dubbed¹⁰ Denisovans who lived in Asia until about 40,000 years ago. Denisovans weren't the only human relatives using this cave. Neanderthals were there, too. Neanderthals of course were our stocky, cave-dwelling cousins. So when researchers found another tiny bone fragment just an inch long that seemed vaguely¹¹ human, they weren't quite sure who it belonged to.

PAABO: I was sort of convinced it would be either a Denisovan, a Neanderthal or a modern human. And the first part of the genome we looked at was the mitochondrial genome, which is a tiny part of the genome that we inherit exclusively from our mothers.

WAMSLEY: And that part was showing good evidence of this individual being a Neanderthal. But as they kept analyzing¹² the bone...

PAABO: People in the lab then started to have this indication that it was equally close to Denisovans. I was initially¹³ convinced they had screwed something up in the lab or mixed something up in analysis.

WAMSLEY: But they hadn't. And as a paper published today in the journal Nature explains, they found something quite remarkable¹⁴. The bone belonged to a young female at least 13 years old who lived about 90,000 years ago. What makes her special? She had a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father. From their previous sequencing of that pinkie bone in 2010, they already knew that Denisovans had mated with Neanderthals at some point in their past. But to find the remains¹⁵ of someone who was herself the first-generation offspring of these two groups is surprising.

PAABO: We then had very direct evidence of mixing with each other.

WAMSLEY: Sharon Browning, a statistical¹⁶ geneticist at the University of Washington, says sex between Neanderthals and Denisovans couldn't have happened very often, otherwise their genes¹⁷ would not be so distinct.

SHARON BROWNING: There can't have been too many of these admixed individuals. So being able to find this particular bone that is from this type of individual is pretty amazing. It's like catching¹⁸ something as it's happening.

WAMSLEY: Pabbo says that this finding means that when Neanderthals and Denisovans met, they had no problem mating with each other. And full disclosure - it wasn't just Denisovans and Neanderthals that were hooking up. Modern humans mixed with both of them, too.

PAABO: It's beginning to be a picture where all these three groups when they met mixed quite readily with each other.

WAMSLEY: And that's why he says many people today have Neanderthal or Denisovan DNA in their own genomes. Laurel Wamsley, NPR News.

1 prehistoric   

adj.（有记载的）历史以前的，史前的，古老的

参考例句：

• They have found prehistoric remains.他们发现了史前遗迹。
• It was rather like an exhibition of prehistoric electronic equipment.这儿倒像是在展览古老的电子设备。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 millennia   

n.一千年，千禧年

参考例句：

• For two millennia, exogamy was a major transgression for Jews. 两千年来，异族通婚一直是犹太人的一大禁忌。
• In the course of millennia, the dinosaurs died out. 在几千年的时间里，恐龙逐渐死绝了。

4 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

5 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

6 anthropology   

n.人类学

参考例句：

• I believe he has started reading up anthropology.我相信他已开始深入研究人类学。
• Social anthropology is centrally concerned with the diversity of culture.社会人类学主要关于文化多样性。

7 shard   

n.（陶瓷器、瓦等的）破片，碎片

参考例句：

• Eyewitnesses spoke of rocks and shards of glass flying in the air.目击者称空中石块和玻璃碎片四溅。
• That's the same stuff we found in the shard.那与我们发现的碎片在材质上一样。

8 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

9 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

10 dubbed   

v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制

参考例句：

• Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 数学曾一度被视为各门科学的基础。
• Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 这部电影是配音的还是打字幕的？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 vaguely   

adv.含糊地，暖昧地

参考例句：

• He had talked vaguely of going to work abroad.他含糊其词地说了到国外工作的事。
• He looked vaguely before him with unseeing eyes.他迷迷糊糊的望着前面，对一切都视而不见。

12 analyzing   

v.分析；分析( analyze的现在分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析n.分析

参考例句：

• Analyzing the date of some socialist countries presents even greater problem s. 分析某些社会主义国家的统计数据，暴露出的问题甚至更大。 来自辞典例句
• He undoubtedly was not far off the mark in analyzing its predictions. 当然，他对其预测所作的分析倒也八九不离十。 来自辞典例句

13 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

14 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

15 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

16 statistical   

adj.统计的，统计学的

参考例句：

• He showed the price fluctuations in a statistical table.他用统计表显示价格的波动。
• They're making detailed statistical analysis.他们正在做具体的统计分析。

17 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

18 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。