現代智人起源於中國

科學家肯定亞洲發現的牙齒化石爲現代人類遺留

做者：CHENG YINGQI； 譯者：RK翔

譯文

在湖南省，現現在發現了47枚人類牙齒化石。

本次由中國科學家在湖南省發現的47枚人類牙齒爲最先期東亞現代人的起源提供了新的證據。

本次人類牙齒化石和其餘一些動物化石是在道縣的福巖洞被現世的。

根據地質年代測試分析，科學家肯定這些牙齒是來自智人，而智人生活在距今80000至120000年之前。

通過2011和2013年的挖掘，本批牙齒化石的發現近期刊登在《天然》科學期刊的電子版上。

本期刊執行編輯Nick Campbell說到：「中國發現的人類牙齒化石… 爲咱們知之甚少的領域開闢了一個新的道路。」

「相比南亞那些保存無缺，年代明確的化石，這次化石的年代要古老一倍以上。」

因爲缺乏化石證據，人類第一次出如今地中海東部和東亞一直是一個迷。

早期在北京田園洞，湖北省黃龍洞和廣西壯族自治區智人洞的人類化石將人類出現的時間縮小到11000至40000年以前，但這些化石都來自未徹底進化成現代人的人類遠祖。

中科院古脊椎動物和古人類研究所的劉武和《天然》刊文的第一做者說到：「本次發現具備里程碑的意義，由於咱們在福巖洞發現的樣本是源自進化徹底的現代人，幾乎和現存人類別無二致。」

「這證實了，中國南部比地中海東部和歐洲早30000至70000出現了現代人類的蹤影。」

《天然》期刊的Campbell說到：「本次發現從本質上改變了咱們對亞洲現代人類起源的認知。」

「本次發現可能爲現代人如何取代尼安德特人提供了隱晦的線索。」

尼安德特人和現代人類很是相近，他們生活在24000至130000年之前。

相比現代人，他們更矮小，更扁平狹長的頭骨。

做爲發文的合做做者，英國倫敦大學的Maria Martinon-Torres說到：「現在，咱們知道現代人類在80000年以前就出如今中國南部，但尚且沒有證據支持現代人在45000年以前進入歐洲，而此時尼安德特人已經滅絕了。」

英國Exeter大學考古系的Robin Dennell如此形容本次牙齒化石發現的意義：「中國南部確定還會傳來更多關於人類種族進化歷史的相關消息。」

原文

Some of the 47 human teeth discovered in a cave in Hunan province.

The discovery of 47 human teeth in a cave in Hunan province by Chinese scientists has unearthed new evidence that the earliest modern humans lived in East Asia.

The teeth and a number of animal fossils were excavated from Fuyan Cave in Daoxian county.

After geological dating tests and analysis, the scientists determined that the teeth belonged to Homo sapiens, the species of modern humans that lived between 80,000 and 120,000 years ago.

The discovery of the teeth, made between 2011 and 2013, has just been reported in the online version of the scientific journal Nature.

Nick Campbell, the journal's executive editor, said, "The human teeth from China ... open up a new window on an area we had little information on before.

"These fossils ... are approximately double or more the age of any previous well dated, well preserved human fossils from southern Asia."

The first appearance of humans in the eastern Mediterranean and East Asia has remained a mystery due to lack of fossil evidence.

Human fossils found earlier in Beijing's Tianyuan Cave, Huanglong Cave in Hubei province and Zhiren Cave in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region narrowed this down to between 11,000 and 40,000 years ago, but none of these species evolved fully into modern humans.

Liu Wu from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and lead author of the paper in Nature, said, "This is a milestone discovery because the species we found in the Fuyuan Cave is from well developed modern humans, almost identical to living humans.

"This means that we were present in southern China 30,000 to 70,000 years earlier than in the eastern Mediterranean and Europe."

Campbell, from Nature, said, "The findings really do substantially change our understanding of how modern humans established themselves in Asia.

"The findings may have some intriguing implications for the ever-evolving story of how modern humans replaced Neanderthals."

Neanderthals were closely related to modern humans and lived between 24,000 and 130,000 years ago.

They were smaller than modern humans and had low, flat elongated skulls.

Maria Martinon-Torres from University College London, a co-author of the paper, said, "Now we know that modern humans were present in southern China as early as 80,000 years ago, but there is no evidence that our species entered Europe before 45,000 years ago, when Neanderthals were already extinct."

Robin Dennell from the Department of Archaeology at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, said of the teeth discovery, "More revelations about our species' history can surely be expected from southern China."