万物简史 第644期:永不安分的类人猿(16)

But all of this overlooked the more or less infinite capacity for surprise offered by the ancient Mungo people of western New South Wales.

但是，在发生这一切的过程中，人们没有想到新南威尔士州西部的古蒙戈人在某种程度上具有提供大家意想不到的信息的无限本事。

In early 2001, Thorne and his colleagues at the Australian National University reported that

2001年初，澳大利亚国立大学的桑恩和他的同事们宣布，

they had recovered DNA¹ from the oldest of the Mungo specimens—now dated at 62,000 years

他们从一个最古老的蒙戈人标本——生活于62000年前——中提取了DNA，

and that this DNA proved to be "genetically⁴ distinct."

研究表明，这种DNA“有着与众不同的基因特点”。

The Mungo Man, according to these findings, was anatomically modern—just like you and me—but carried an extinct genetic³ lineage.

根据这些发现，蒙戈人在解剖结构上是现代人——就像你和我，却具有一种已经灭绝了的基因系列。

His mitochondrial DNA is no longer found in living humans, as it should be if, like all other modern people,

他的线粒体DNA在活着的人身上再也找不到，而要是他像所有别的现代人

he was descended⁵ from people who left Africa in the recent past.

那样是在不太遥远的过去离开非洲的人类的后裔，那是应该找得到的。

"It turned everything upside down again," says Thorne with undisguised delight.

“这再一次使一切都颠倒过来。”桑恩显然很开心。

Then other even more curious anomalies began to turn up.

接着，别的更古怪的异常情况出现了。

Rosalind Harding, a population geneticist at the Institute of Biological Anthropology⁶ in Oxford⁷, while studying betaglobin genes⁸ in modern people,

牛津大学生物人类学研究所的人类遗传学家罗莎琳德.哈丁在研究现代人类球蛋白基因时发现了两个变异体，

found two variants¹⁰ that are common among Asians and the indigenous¹¹ people of Australia,

这种变异体在亚洲人和澳大利亚土著人身上很常见，

but hardly exist in Africa.

而在非洲人身上却几乎不存在。

The variant⁹ genes, she is certain, arose more than 200,000 years ago not in Africa,

她确信这种不同的基因产生于20万年前，但不是出现在非洲

but in east Asia—long before modern Homo sapiens reached the region.

而是在东亚——远在现代智人到达这一地区之前。

The only way to account for them is to say that ancestors of people now living in Asia included archaic¹² hominids—Java Man and the like.

对此所能作出的惟一合理的解释是，现在的亚洲人的祖先中包括古代人科动物——爪畦人等。

Interestingly, this same variant gene²—the Java Man gene, so to speak—turns up in modern populations in Oxfordshire.

有趣的是，同样的变异基因——姑且说成是爪哇人基因——出现在了牛津郡的现代人中。

Confused, I went to see Harding at the institute,

我感到有些困惑，因此我去研究所拜见了哈丁女士。

which inhabits an old brick villa¹³ on Banbury Road in Oxford, in more or less the neighborhood where Bill Clinton spent his student days.

研究所设在牛津班伯里德路一所古老的砖型别墅里。

1 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。

2 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

3 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。

4 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

5 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

6 anthropology   

n.人类学

参考例句：

• I believe he has started reading up anthropology.我相信他已开始深入研究人类学。
• Social anthropology is centrally concerned with the diversity of culture.社会人类学主要关于文化多样性。

7 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

8 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

9 variant   

adj.不同的，变异的；n.变体，异体

参考例句：

• We give professional suggestions according to variant tanning stages for each customer.我们针对每位顾客不同的日晒阶段，提供强度适合的晒黑建议。
• In a variant of this approach,the tests are data- driven.这个方法的一个变种，是数据驱动的测试。

10 variants   

n.变体( variant的名词复数 )；变种；变型；（词等的）变体

参考例句：

• Those variants will be preserved in the'struggle for existence". 这些变异将在“生存竞争”中被保留下来。 来自辞典例句
• Like organisms, viruses have variants, generally called strains. 与其他生物一样，病毒也有变种，一般称之为株系。 来自辞典例句

11 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

12 archaic   

adj.(语言、词汇等)古代的，已不通用的

参考例句：

• The company does some things in archaic ways,such as not using computers for bookkeeping.这个公司有些做法陈旧，如记账不使用电脑。
• Shaanxi is one of the Chinese archaic civilized origins which has a long history.陕西省是中国古代文明发祥之一，有悠久的历史。

13 villa   

n.别墅，城郊小屋

参考例句：

• We rented a villa in France for the summer holidays.我们在法国租了一幢别墅消夏。
• We are quartered in a beautiful villa.我们住在一栋漂亮的别墅里。