万物简史 第632期:神秘的两足动物(10)

The shortage wouldn't be so bad if the bones were distributed evenly through time and space, but of course they are not. They appear randomly¹, often in the most tantalizing² fashion. Homo erectus walked the Earth for well over a million years and inhabited territory from the Atlantic edge of Europe to the Pacific side of China, yet if you brought back to life every Homo erectus individual whose existence we can vouch³ for, they wouldn't fill a school bus. Homo habilis consists of even less: just two partial skeletons and a number of isolated⁴ limb bones. Something as short-lived as our own civilization would almost certainly not be known from the fossil record at all.

如果这些人类化石能够按时间和空间分布得比较均匀的话，即使缺乏，事情也不至于如此糟糕。实际情况当然并非如此。它们东一块西一块地出现，往往令人备尝可望而不可即之苦。直立人在地球存在了100万年以上的时间，他们居住的范围从欧洲的大西洋沿岸一直到中国的太平洋沿岸，然而如果你将所发现的每一个直立人复活，他们还装不满一辆校车。能人的化石就更加少得可怜：只有两副不完整的骨骼和几根孤零零的肢骨。有一些存在时间和我们自己的文明一样短暂的事物，仅仅根据化石记录，几乎肯定是无从考证的。

"In Europe," Tattersall offers by way of illustration, "you've got hominid skulls⁵ in Georgia dated to about 1.7 million years ago, but then you have a gap of almost a million years before the next remains⁶ turn up in Spain, right on the other side of the continent, and then you've got another 300,000-year gap before you get a Homo heidelbergensis in Germany—and none of them looks terribly much like any of the others." He smiled. "It's from these kinds of fragmentary pieces that you're trying to work out the histories of entire species. It's quite a tall order. We really have very little idea of the relationships between many ancient species— which led to us and which were evolutionary⁷ dead ends. Some probably don't deserve to be regarded as separate species at all."

为了说明这一点，塔特萨尔这样说道： 在欧洲，你在格鲁吉亚发现了大约170万年前的人科动物头骨；接着，在大陆另一端的西班牙发现了一块与之差不多相隔100万年的化石；然后，又在德国发现了一块与之相隔30万年的海德堡人化石。它们彼此之间几乎没有任何相似之处。”他微笑了一下，继续说道，“你就是在根据这样支离破碎的东西想要归纳出整个人类的历史。这是很难办到的事。我们确实对许多古代物种彼此之间的关系了解甚少——这些物种中哪些最终进化成了人类，哪些在进化过程中灭绝了，我们实在不知其详。有些也许根本不应该视为单独的种类。”

1 randomly   

adv.随便地，未加计划地

参考例句：

• Within the hot gas chamber, molecules are moving randomly in all directions. 在灼热的气体燃烧室内，分子在各个方向上作无规运动。 来自辞典例句
• Transformed cells are loosely attached, rounded and randomly oriented. 转化细胞则不大贴壁、圆缩并呈杂乱分布。 来自辞典例句

2 tantalizing   

adj.逗人的；惹弄人的；撩人的；煽情的v.逗弄，引诱，折磨( tantalize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• This was my first tantalizing glimpse of the islands. 这是我第一眼看见的这些岛屿的动人美景。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We have only vague and tantalizing glimpses of his power. 我们只能隐隐约约地领略他的威力，的确有一种可望不可及的感觉。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史

3 vouch   

v.担保；断定；n.被担保者

参考例句：

• They asked whether I was prepared to vouch for him.他们问我是否愿意为他作担保。
• I can vouch for the fact that he is a good worker.我保证他是好员工。

4 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

5 skulls   

颅骨( skull的名词复数 )； 脑袋； 脑子； 脑瓜

参考例句：

• One of the women's skulls found exceeds in capacity that of the average man of today. 现已发现的女性颅骨中，其中有一个的脑容量超过了今天的普通男子。
• We could make a whole plain white with skulls in the moonlight! 我们便能令月光下的平原变白，遍布白色的骷髅！

6 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。

7 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。