万物简史 第644期:神秘的两足动物(24)

Although erectus had been known about for almost a century it was known only from scattered¹ fragments—not enough to come even close to making one full skeleton. So it wasn't until an extraordinary discovery in Africa in the 1980s that its importance—or, at the very least, possible importance—as a precursor² species for modern humans was fully³ appreciated. The remote valley of Lake Turkana (formerly Lake Rudolf) in Kenya is now one of the world's most productive sites for early human remains⁴, but for a very long time no one had thought to look there. It was only because Richard Leakey was on a flight that was diverted over the valley that he realized it might be more promising⁵ than had been thought. A team was dispatched to investigate, but at first found nothing. Then late one afternoon Kamoya Kimeu, Leakey's most renowned⁶ fossil hunter, found a small piece of hominid brow on a hill well away from the lake. Such a site was unlikely to yield much, but they dug anyway out of respect for Kimeu's instincts and to their astonishment⁷ found a nearly complete Homo erectus skeleton. It was from a boy aged⁸ between about nine and twelve who had died 1.54 million years ago. The skeleton had "an entirely⁹ modern body structure," says Tattersall, in a way that was without precedent¹⁰. The Turkana boy was "very emphatically one of us."

尽管直立人被发现已近一个世纪之久，但人们对他的了解仍然只能建立在零零碎碎的化石上——甚至还拼不成一副完整的骸骨。直到20世纪80年代，在非洲的一次非同寻常的发现以后，其作为现代人的先驱者的重要性——或者至少说，其可能具有的重要性——才得以被完全认识。偏僻的肯尼亚图尔卡纳湖区（以前的鲁道夫湖区）现在已是世界上发现早期人类化石最多的地区之一，但是在以前相当长一段时期内，没有任何人想到去那里寻找化石：仅仅是因为有一次飞机偏离航线而飞过了湖区上空，使得理查德·利基意识到这可能是一个比原先想像的更有收获的地方。一个考察队被派遣到了这一地区，可是一开始什么也没有找到。接着，有一天下午晚些时候，利基手下最著名的化石发发掘卡莫亚·基穆在离开湖区一段距离的一座小山上发现了一小片人科动物的眉脊化石。这样一个地方原本不大可能有大的收获，可是出于对基穆直觉的尊重，大家还是开挖了起来。令人吃惊的是，他们居然挖掘出一副几乎完整无缺的直立人骸骨。这是一个年龄大约在9-12岁的男孩骸骨，死于154万年前。塔特萨尔认为，这副骸骨具备了“所有现代人类的身体结构”。在某种意义上，这是史无前例的发现。“图尔卡纳男孩显然是我们中的一员”。

Also found at Lake Turkana by Kimeu was KNM-ER 1808, a female 1.7 million years old, which gave scientists their first clue that Homo erectus was more interesting and complex than previously¹¹ thought. The woman's bones were deformed¹² and covered in coarse growths, the result of an agonizing¹³ condition called hypervitaminosis A, which can come only from eating the liver of a carnivore. This told us first of all that Homo erectus was eating meat. Even more surprising was that the amount of growth showed that she had lived weeks or even months with the disease. Someone had looked after her. It was the first sign of tenderness in hominid evolution.

基穆在图尔卡纳湖还发现了编号为KNM - ER1800的一副170万年前的女性骸骨。它第一次给科学家提供了有关直立人的线索，使得他们认识到直立人比以前想像的要有趣和复杂得多。这个女人的骨骼有些变形，上面布满斑斑点点，表明她得过一种被称为维生素A过多症的慢性病。这种病只有吃食肉动物的肝脏才会得。这第一次向我们表明直立人是肉食人属。更令人惊叹的是，她骨骼上的斑点数量表明，她患病已达几周甚至几个月而没有死去。有人曾经照料过她。这是人科动物进化过程中所发现的温柔之情的第一个迹象。

1 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

2 precursor   

n.先驱者；前辈；前任；预兆；先兆

参考例句：

• Error is often the precursor of what is correct.错误常常是正确的先导。
• He said that the deal should not be seen as a precursor to a merger.他说该笔交易不应该被看作是合并的前兆。

3 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

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 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

6 renowned   

adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的

参考例句：

• He is one of the world's renowned writers.他是世界上知名的作家之一。
• She is renowned for her advocacy of human rights.她以提倡人权而闻名。

7 astonishment   

n.惊奇，惊异

参考例句：

• They heard him give a loud shout of astonishment.他们听见他惊奇地大叫一声。
• I was filled with astonishment at her strange action.我对她的奇怪举动不胜惊异。

8 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

9 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。

10 precedent   

n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的

参考例句：

• Is there a precedent for what you want me to do?你要我做的事有前例可援吗？
• This is a wonderful achievement without precedent in Chinese history.这是中国历史上亘古未有的奇绩。

11 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。

12 deformed   

adj.畸形的；变形的；丑的，破相了的

参考例句：

• He was born with a deformed right leg.他出生时右腿畸形。
• His body was deformed by leprosy.他的身体因为麻风病变形了。

13 agonizing   

adj.痛苦难忍的；使人苦恼的v.使极度痛苦；折磨(agonize的ing形式)

参考例句：

• I spent days agonizing over whether to take the job or not. 我用了好些天苦苦思考是否接受这个工作。
• his father's agonizing death 他父亲极度痛苦的死