科学美国人60秒 SSS 丹尼索瓦人的活动范围曾扩展到中国

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。

Much like modern humans, the Neanderthals roamed widely throughout Europe.

尼安德特人和现代人一样也曾在欧洲各地游荡。

We know because they left behind extensive evidence, usually bones or tools.

我们知道，是因为他们留下了大量通常是骨头或工具的证据。

But their cousins, the Denisovans, are more mysterious.

但他们的表亲，丹尼索瓦人，却更神秘。

Until recently, they were conclusively² linked only to a single cave in southern Siberia, called Denisova Cave, between Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

直到最近，它们只被确定与西伯利亚南部的一个洞穴有关，这个洞穴叫做丹尼索瓦洞穴，位于哈萨克斯坦和蒙古之间。

Scientists had found a finger bone, three teeth, and a piece of skull³, which tipped them off to the existence of a whole new lineage of ancient human.

科学家们发现了一块指骨、三颗牙齿和一块头骨，这提示他们存在着一个全新的古人类谱系。

Now, scientists have uncovered more of the range of the Denisovans, says Diyendo Massilani of the Max Planck Institute in Germany.

德国马克斯·普朗克研究所的迪扬多·马西拉尼表示，现在，科学家们已经发现了更多丹尼索瓦人的活动范围。

His team turned up evidence the ancient humans occupied a high-mountain cave on the Tibetan plateau, called Baishiya cave.

他的团队发现了古人类居住在青藏高原的一个高山洞穴的证据，这个洞穴被称为白石崖洞。

"The cave belongs to monks⁵, and monks think it's a very holy place."

“这个洞穴属于僧侣，僧侣们认为这是一个非常神圣的地方。”

In fact, a monk⁴ found a piece of jawbone there in 1980, which has been tenuously⁶ linked to the Denisovans.

事实上，一名僧侣在1980年在那里发现了一块颌骨，这与丹尼索瓦人有微弱的联系。

But Massilani and his team have now unearthed⁷ more conclusive¹ evidence by sifting⁸ through cave sediments¹⁰, and sequencing the genetic¹¹ evidence the Denisovans left behind.

但马西拉尼和他的团队现在通过筛选洞穴沉积物，对丹尼索瓦人留下的基因证据进行排序，发现了更确凿的证据。

"Body decay. Or people bleeding, or pooping, peeing there, they could leave their DNA¹²."

“身体腐烂。 或者人们在那里流血、大便、小便，他们可能会留下DNA。”

The DNA appears in layers—suggesting the Denisovans inhabited the cave as far back as 100,000 years ago, as well as at 60,000 years ago, and perhaps even as recently as 45,000 years ago—meaning the Denisovans might have overlapped¹³ in this region with modern humans.

DNA分层出现，表明丹尼索瓦人早在10万年前、6万年前、甚至是最近的4.5万年前就居住在这个洞穴中，这意味着丹尼索瓦人可能在这一地区与现代人类重合。

The results appear in the journal Science.

研究结果发表在科学杂志上。

Massilani says this method could enable more Denisovan detective work, too.

马西拉尼说，这种方法也使进行更多的丹尼索瓦人侦查工作成为可能。

"There's so many caves where we have evidence of human activity but we don't have hominin remains¹⁴.

“我们在很多洞穴里找到了人类活动的证据，但我们没有古人类遗骸。

So if we can explore the sediment⁹ we can actually start to track down in the sediment the Denisovan DNA."

因此，如果我们能够探索沉积物，我们实际上就可以开始在沉积物中追踪丹尼索瓦人的DNA。”

Denisovans live on today in the genomes of some modern-day humans, from the South Pacific.

丹尼索瓦人至今仍存在于一些来自南太平洋的现代人类的基因组中。

Further genetic work like this might give scientists more clues where early Homo sapiens first met—and mixed with—the elusive¹⁵ Denisovans.

类似这样的进一步的基因研究可能会给科学家们提供更多的线索，早期智人是在哪里与难以捉摸的丹尼索瓦人相遇并结合的。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。

1 conclusive   

adj.最后的，结论的；确凿的，消除怀疑的

参考例句：

• They produced some fairly conclusive evidence.他们提供了一些相当确凿的证据。
• Franklin did not believe that the French tests were conclusive.富兰克林不相信这个法国人的实验是结论性的。

2 conclusively   

adv.令人信服地，确凿地

参考例句：

• All this proves conclusively that she couldn't have known the truth. 这一切无可置疑地证明她不可能知道真相。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• From the facts,he was able to determine conclusively that the death was not a suicide. 根据这些事实他断定这起死亡事件并非自杀。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

4 monk   

n.和尚，僧侣，修道士

参考例句：

• The man was a monk from Emei Mountain.那人是峨眉山下来的和尚。
• Buddhist monk sat with folded palms.和尚合掌打坐。

5 monks   

n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The monks lived a very ascetic life. 僧侣过着很清苦的生活。
• He had been trained rigorously by the monks. 他接受过修道士的严格训练。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 tenuously   

薄地； 细地； 空洞无物地； 无关紧要地

参考例句：

• His works tenuously survive in the minds of a few scholars. 他的作品仅在几个学者脑中留下了些细微的印象。

7 unearthed   

出土的（考古）

参考例句：

• Many unearthed cultural relics are set forth in the exhibition hall. 展览馆里陈列着许多出土文物。
• Some utensils were in a state of decay when they were unearthed. 有些器皿在出土时已经残破。

8 sifting   

n.筛，过滤v.筛( sift的现在分词 )；筛滤；细查；详审

参考例句：

• He lay on the beach, sifting the sand through his fingers. 他躺在沙滩上用手筛砂子玩。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I was sifting the cinders when she came in. 她进来时，我正在筛煤渣。 来自辞典例句

9 sediment   

n.沉淀，沉渣，沉积(物)

参考例句：

• The sediment settled and the water was clear.杂质沉淀后，水变清了。
• Sediment begins to choke the channel's opening.沉积物开始淤塞河道口。

10 sediments   

沉淀物( sediment的名词复数 )； 沉积物

参考例句：

• When deposited, 70-80% of the volume of muddy sediments may be water. 泥质沉积物沉积后，体积的70-80％是水。
• Oligocene erosion had truncated the sediments draped over the dome. 覆盖于穹丘上的沉积岩为渐新世侵蚀所截削。

11 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。

12 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。

13 overlapped   

_adj.重叠的v.部分重叠( overlap的过去式和过去分词 )；（物体）部份重叠；交叠；（时间上）部份重叠

参考例句：

• His visit and mine overlapped. 他的访问期与我的访问期有几天重叠。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Our visits to the town overlapped. 我们彼此都恰巧到那小城观光。 来自辞典例句

14 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。

15 elusive   

adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的

参考例句：

• Try to catch the elusive charm of the original in translation.翻译时设法把握住原文中难以捉摸的风韵。
• Interpol have searched all the corners of the earth for the elusive hijackers.国际刑警组织已在世界各地搜查在逃的飞机劫持者。