万物简史 第635期:神秘的两足动物(13)

These were the australopithecines, and for the next five million years they would be the world's dominant¹ hominid species. (Austral is from the Latin for "southern" and has no connection in this context to Australia.) Australopithecines came in several varieties, some slender and gracile, like Raymond Dart's Taung child, others more sturdy and robust², but all were capable of walking upright. Some of these species existed for well over a million years, others for a more modest few hundred thousand, but it is worth bearing in mind that even the least successful had histories many times longer than we have yet achieved.

这些就是非洲南方古猿。在以后的500多万年里，它们成为世界占据主导地位的人科动物。（Austral源于拉丁语，是“南方”的意思，这里与澳大利亚无任何关系。）非洲南方古猿形成了几个分支，有的较为纤细，像雷蒙德·达特发现的塔翁男孩，有的较为粗壮，但是它们全都能直立行走。这些种属有的存在了足足100多万年，有的只存在了几十万年。但是有一点必须明确，即便是生存年代最短的种类，它们的历史也是我们的好多倍。

The most famous hominid remains³ in the world are those of a 3.18-million-year-old australopithecine found at Hadar in Ethiopia in 1974 by a team led by Donald Johanson. Formally known as A.L. (for "Afar Locality") 288-1, the skeleton became more familiarly known as Lucy, after the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." Johanson has never doubted her importance. "She is our earliest ancestor, the missing link between ape and human," he has said.

最有名的人科动物遗骸是1974年由唐纳德·约翰森带领的考古小组在埃塞俄比亚的哈达尔发现的几块318万年前的南方古猿化石。它的编号是A.L（意思是“阿法地区”）288 -1。后来，人们根据披头士乐队一首动听的歌曲《在钻石天空下的露西》给她取了一个更为亲切的名字名露西。约翰森从未怀疑她的重要性。他说：“是我们最早的祖先。猿和人类之间的缺环。”

Lucy was tiny—just three and a half feet tall. She could walk, though how well is a matter of some dispute. She was evidently a good climber, too. Much else is unknown. Her skull⁴ was almost entirely⁵ missing, so little could be said with confidence about her brain size, though skull fragments suggested it was small. Most books describe Lucy's skeleton as being 40 percent complete, though some put it closer to half, and one produced by the American Museum of Natural History describes Lucy as two-thirds complete. The BBC television series Ape Man actually called it "a complete skeleton," even while showing that it was anything but.

露西身材短小——只有1米高，她会行走，尽管她是否能很好地行走还没有定论。她明显是一位攀缘高手，其他方面的情况就无从考证了。她的头盏骨几乎完全不在了，因此很难有把握确定她的脑容量大小，不过残留的头盏骨碎片表明她的大脑并不大。在提到露西的骨骼时，有很多书上说其中40%是完整的，有的说接近50%是完整的，美国自然史博物馆出版的书中则说三分之二是完整的，而BBC电视系列节目《猿人》的的解说词甚至说是“一副完整的骨骼”，可是电视镜头里所显示的图像根本不是如此。

1 dominant   

adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因

参考例句：

• The British were formerly dominant in India.英国人从前统治印度。
• She was a dominant figure in the French film industry.她在法国电影界是个举足轻重的人物。

2 robust   

adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的

参考例句：

• She is too tall and robust.她个子太高，身体太壮。
• China wants to keep growth robust to reduce poverty and avoid job losses,AP commented.美联社评论道，中国希望保持经济强势增长，以减少贫困和失业状况。

3 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。

4 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。

5 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。