研究人员：巨型树懒和乳齿象曾与人类共同生活在美洲
📖 逐句对照翻译
A sloth is a furry animal that lives mainly in South and Central America.
树懒是一种毛茸茸的动物，主要生活在南美洲和中美洲。
It moves very slowly and spends most of its time in trees.
它行动非常缓慢，大部分时间都待在树上。
But thousands of years ago their ancestors were huge.
但几千年前，它们的祖先体型庞大。
Giant sloths could weigh up to 3.6 metric tons and lived on the ground.
巨型树懒体重可达3.6公吨，生活在地面上。
For many years, scientists believed the first humans to arrive in the Americas quickly killed off these giant ground sloths, along with many other huge animals.
多年来，科学家们认为最早到达美洲的人类很快就灭绝了这些巨型地懒，以及其他许多大型动物。
Those include mastodons, saber-toothed cats, and dire wolves.
这些包括乳齿象、剑齿虎和恐狼。
But research in recent years suggests that humans might have arrived in the Americas thousands of years earlier than scientists had once believed.
但近年来的研究表明，人类可能比科学家曾经认为的早数千年到达美洲。
New findings suggest that humans lived with the big animals for thousands of years.
新发现表明，人类与这些大型动物共同生活了数千年。
Daniel Odess is an archaeologist at White Sands National Park in the American state of New Mexico.
丹尼尔·奥德斯是位于美国新墨西哥州的白沙国家公园的一名考古学家。
“There was this idea that humans arrived and killed everything off very quickly — what’s called ‘Pleistocene overkill,’” he said.
“有一种观点认为，人类到来后很快就消灭了一切——这就是所谓的‘更新世过度猎杀’，”他说。
But new discoveries suggest that “humans were existing alongside these animals for at least 10,000 years, without making them go extinct.”
但新发现表明，“人类与这些动物共存了至少一万年，却没有导致它们灭绝。”
Santa Elina is a place in central Brazil where archeologists are looking for the remains of ancient animals and humans.
圣塔埃利纳是巴西中部的一个地方，考古学家们正在那里寻找古代动物和人类的遗骸。
There, scientists have found bones of giant sloths.
在那里，科学家们发现了巨型树懒的骨骼。
However, the bones look like humans used them and changed them.
然而，这些骨头看起来像是被人类使用并改造过。
Mírian Pacheco is a researcher in a laboratory at the University of São Paulo.
米里安·帕切科是圣保罗大学实验室的一名研究员。
Pacheco recently showed The Associated Press a small, round sloth fossil.
帕切科最近向美联社展示了一块小而圆的树懒化石。
She noted that the fossil is smooth and there is a very small hole near one edge.
她注意到这块化石表面光滑，边缘附近有一个非常小的孔。
She said it looks like humans changed the bone on purpose.
她说这看起来像是人类故意改变了这块骨头。
She added that researchers think the bone was probably used as jewelry.
她补充说，研究人员认为这块骨头很可能是被用作珠宝。
The animal bones from Santa Elina are about 27,000 years old.
来自圣埃琳娜的动物骨骼大约有27000年的历史。
That is older than scientists had thought possible.
这比科学家们曾经认为的可能年代还要久远。
Some had believed that humans only arrived in the Americas 11,000 years ago.
一些人曾认为人类仅在1.1万年前才到达美洲。
Researchers at first wondered if humans had been working with ancient fossils.
研究人员起初想知道人类是否一直在研究古代化石。
But Pacheco’s research strongly suggests that ancient people were carving “fresh bones” shortly after the animals died.
但帕切科的研究有力地表明，古人在动物死亡后不久就开始雕刻“鲜骨”。
Pacheco studied chemical changes that take place when a bone becomes a fossil.
帕切科研究了骨骼变成化石时发生的化学变化。
She said the bone had been carved “before the fossilization process.”
她说，这块骨头是在“化石形成过程之前”被雕刻的。
Pacheco’s team also ruled out natural processes.
帕切科的团队也排除了自然过程的可能。
In high school, Pacheco learned that most archeologists believed humans arrived in the Americas about 13,000 to 11,000 years ago.
高中时，帕切科了解到大多数考古学家认为人类大约在13000至11000年前到达美洲。
“What I learned in school was that Clovis was first,” she said.
“我在学校学到的是，克洛维斯文化是最早的，”她说。
Clovis is a place in New Mexico where archaeologists in the 1920s and 1930s found objects dated to between 11,000 and 13,000 years ago.
克洛维斯是新墨西哥州的一个地方，20世纪20年代和30年代的考古学家在那里发现了距今11000年至13000年的物品。
Until more recent years, Clovis objects, or artifacts, were among the oldest known in the Americas.
直到最近几年，克洛维斯器物或人工制品一直是美洲已知最古老的物品之一。
Scientists say there was a large decrease in the number of large animals at that time.
科学家们表示，当时大型动物的数量大幅减少。
The period is also believed to mark the end of the last Ice Age: a period when large areas of land were covered with thick ice and snow.
这一时期也被认为标志着最后一个冰河时代的结束：在那个时期，大片土地被厚厚的冰雪覆盖。
Briana Pobiner is a paleontologist with the Smithsonian Institution’s Human Origins Program.
布里安娜·波比纳是史密森尼学会人类起源项目的古生物学家。
Pobiner said, “It was a nice story for a while, when all the timing lined up,” adding, “But it doesn’t really work so well anymore.”
波比纳说：“当所有时间线都对上时，这曾是个不错的故事。”她补充道，“但现在它已经不太站得住脚了。”
In the past 30 years, new research methods, including ancient DNA, have suggested a different story.
在过去30年里，包括古DNA在内的新研究方法提示了一个不同的故事。
The first place that most scientists agreed was older than Clovis was Monte Verde, Chile.
大多数科学家一致认为，比克洛维斯文化更古老的第一个地点是智利的蒙特维德。
There, researchers discovered 14,500-year-old stone tools, pieces of animal skins, and several plants people could eat and use for medicine.
在那里，研究人员发现了14,500年前的石器、动物皮毛碎片，以及几种可供人食用和药用的植物。
“Monte Verde was a shock,” said Tom Dillehay.
汤姆·迪勒海说：“蒙特维德令人震惊。”
He is an archeologist at Vanderbilt University in the American state of Tennessee.
他是美国田纳西州范德堡大学的一名考古学家。
Dillehay has carried out research at Monte Verde for many years.
迪勒海在蒙特维德进行了多年的研究。
At New Mexico’s White Sands, researchers have uncovered human footprints dated to between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago.
在新墨西哥州的白沙，研究人员发现了距今2.1万至2.3万年的人类足迹。
The site also has tracks of giant animals dated to about the same time.
该遗址还发现了大约同一时期的巨型动物足迹。
However, archeologists have not found any artifacts at the site.
然而，考古学家在该遗址并未发现任何文物。
Researchers continue to disagree about the timing of humans’ first arrival in the Americas.
研究人员对于人类首次抵达美洲的时间仍存在分歧。
But if they did arrive earlier than once thought, several scientists now believe that it is possible they did not immediately kill off the giant animals living in the Americas.
但如果它们确实比人们先前认为的更早到达，几位科学家现在认为，它们可能并没有立即杀死生活在美洲的巨型动物。
I’m Andrew Smith.
我是安德鲁·史密斯。
And I'm Mario Ritter, Jr.
我是小马里奥·里特。
Christina Larson reported this story for The Associated Press.
克里斯蒂娜·拉森为美联社报道了这一故事。
Andrew Smith adapted the story for Learning English.
安德鲁·史密斯为《学英语》改编了这个故事。
