美国有线新闻 CNN 科学家寻找最古老犬种

Which of these dog breeds is believed to be the oldest? Afghan Hound, Alaskan Malamute, Border Collie or Chihuahua. Many scientists believe the Afghan Hound originated in Afghanistan in around 6,000 B.C. making it the oldest breed on this list.

下列哪个犬种被认为是最古老的？阿富汗猎犬、阿拉斯加雪橇犬、边境牧羊犬还是吉娃娃？许多科学家认为，阿富汗猎犬起源于大约公元前6000年的阿富汗，是上述名单上最古老的犬种。

There's widespread disagreement over what the oldest breed in the world is. Some scientists say it's the Akita Inu, the Basenji or the Chinese Saluki. And while the relationship between people and dogs is known to go back thousands of years, researchers don't know exactly when or why dogs became domesticated¹ as man's best friend. But there are some new theories about this and a related study was just published in the "Proceedings² of the National Academy of Sciences".

对于世界上最古老的犬种是什么，存在着广泛的分歧。一些科学家认为是秋田犬，巴仙吉犬或萨路基猎犬。人类和犬类之间的关系可追溯至几千年前，但研究人员尚不清楚犬类在何时或为何会被驯化成为人类最好的朋友。但关于这个问题有一些新的理论，一项相关研究刚刚发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》上。

What researchers did was compare genetic³ information gathered from ancient human remains⁴ with the info gathered from ancient dog remains. They say that some of the dogs found in the Americas have lineage that could be traced back to ancient Siberian dogs.

研究人员将从古代人类遗骸中收集到的基因信息与从古代狗遗骸中收集的信息进行比较。他们表示，在美洲发现的一些狗的血统可以追溯到古代西伯利亚狗。

So from that, they concluded that when people migrated from Northeast Asia to the Americas, the dogs came with them. Scientists believe this happened more than 15,000 years ago over the Bering Land Bridge which no longer exists. The study lead author theorized that the dogs could have helped the people carry their goods faster and she suggested that people and dogs might have gotten together in the first place when humans allowed wolves to eat whatever food people threw away.

因此，他们由此得出结论，当人们从东北亚迁徙到美洲时，狗狗也随之而来。科学家认为这发生在15000多年前的白令陆桥上，这座桥已经不复存在。这项研究的首席作者推论，狗可以帮助人们更快地搬运货物，她认为当人类允许狼吃人们扔掉的任何食物时，人和狗可能就联系在一起了。

There's no definitive⁵ proof of this but researchers are hoping the search for older dog bones in the region of Siberia to get more evidence. So I guess you could say that some scientific studies have gone to the dogs.

目前尚确切证据证明这一点，但研究人员希望在西伯利亚地区寻找更古老的狗骨头来获得更多证据。我想你可能会说，一些科学研究已经开始研究犬类了。

1 domesticated   

adj.喜欢家庭生活的；（指动物）被驯养了的v.驯化( domesticate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He is thoroughly domesticated and cooks a delicious chicken casserole. 他精于家务，烹制的砂锅炖小鸡非常可口。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The donkey is a domesticated form of the African wild ass. 驴是非洲野驴的一种已驯化的品种。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 proceedings   

n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼

3 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

4 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。

5 definitive   

adj.确切的，权威性的；最后的，决定性的

参考例句：

• This book is the definitive guide to world cuisine.这本书是世界美食的权威指南。
• No one has come up with a definitive answer as to why this should be so.至于为什么该这样，还没有人给出明确的答复。