這個頭骨不是真的，但它可能是我們的祖先

In the story of our species, Africa is known as the cradle of humanity. Somewhere on this vast continent, hundreds of thousands of years ago, a group of early humans is thought to have diverged from the others, ultimately spreading across Africa and the rest of the world.

在我們?nèi)祟惖墓适轮校侵薇环Q為人類的搖籃。在這片廣袤的大陸上的某處，幾十萬年前，一群早期人類被認(rèn)為已經(jīng)與其他人類分道揚鑣，最終蔓延到非洲和世界其他地方。

These were the first ancestors of modern humans, but the thing is, no one knows who they were or in what region they were located. At the time, there were several human species living in Africa, and what we currently know about these early humans comes almost exclusively from fossils, which are rare and fragmented.

他們是現(xiàn)代人類的第一代祖先，但問題是，沒有人知道他們是誰，也不知道他們在哪個地區(qū)。當(dāng)時，有幾個人類物種生活在非洲，我們目前對這些早期人類的了解幾乎完全來自化石，這些化石非常罕見，而且支離破碎。

For years, scientists have hotly debated which early humans were related to us and which simply died out on a parallel evolutionary branch.

多年來，科學(xué)家們一直在激烈地爭論，哪些早期人類與我們有親緣關(guān)系，哪些只是在平行進(jìn)化分支上滅絕了。

(Aurélien Mounier/CNRS-MNHN)

Instead of waiting for a new specimen to clear things up, scientists have now taken a stab at re-creating a fossil not yet found, the oldest of all Homo sapiens,an elusive ancestor that might have lived in Africa some 300,000 years ago.

現(xiàn)在，科學(xué)家們不再等待一個新的標(biāo)本來理清頭緒，而是嘗試重新創(chuàng)造一個尚未發(fā)現(xiàn)的化石，這是所有智人中最古老的，一個難以捉摸的祖先，可能在30萬年前生活在非洲

Using computers and mathematical techniques, the team has virtually rendered a skull with surprisingly slender and modern features. The high forehead, flat face and a rounded skull are reminiscent of living humans, the authors say, while the projected brow-ridge and wide-set eyes are more similar to archaic hominins.

利用計算機(jī)和數(shù)學(xué)技術(shù)，研究小組實際上已經(jīng)繪制出了一個具有驚人的細(xì)長的、現(xiàn)代特征的頭骨。作者說，高高的前額、扁平的臉和圓圓的頭骨讓人想起了活著的人類，而突出的眉脊和寬闊的眼睛則更像古代的人類。

It's true such a skull may have never existed. But the authors say it's a tentative prediction of what the last common ancestor of modern humans might have looked like.

的確，這樣的頭骨可能從未存在過。但作者說，這是對現(xiàn)代人類最后一個共同祖先的初步預(yù)測。

The model is based on a range of data: the analysis of several extinct human relatives from the Late Middle Pleistocene (LMP), including Neanderthals; CT scans from the skulls of 260 people from all over the world; and a set of early modern skulls from Israel, dating back 100,000 years.

該模型基于一系列數(shù)據(jù):對中更新世晚期(LMP)包括尼安德特人在內(nèi)的幾個滅絕的人類近親的分析;來自世界各地260人頭骨的CT掃描;一組來自以色列的早期現(xiàn)代頭骨，可以追溯到10萬年前。

Organising these skulls into an evolutionary tree, the researchers noticed not one, but three different populations of early humans living in Africa during the LMP.

將這些頭骨組織成一棵進(jìn)化樹，研究人員注意到在LMP期間，生活在非洲的不是一個，而是三個不同的早期人類群體。

(Aurélien Mounier/CNRS-MNHN)

A fossil from Morocco represented one population, while another in Tanzania showed different features. Two more fossils from East Africa and one from South Africa revealed a third population, and it was this group that most closely resembled the new virtually-reconstructed skull.

一塊來自摩洛哥的化石代表了一個種群，而另一塊來自坦桑尼亞的化石則顯示了不同的特征。另外兩塊來自東非的化石和一塊來自南非的化石揭示了第三種人種，而正是這組化石最接近新的虛擬重建頭骨。

As such, the authors speculate that the earliest common ancestor of modern humans might have arisen from inter-mixing between the South- and East-African populations. Meanwhile, the North-African populations probably interacted with Neanderthals during this time.

因此，作者推測，現(xiàn)代人最早的共同祖先可能來自于南非人和東非人的混合。與此同時，北非人很可能在這段時間與尼安德特人發(fā)生了互動。

In other words, the 'cradle' of civilisation might not be confined to one simple spot; our origin story might be more diverse and complex than all that.

換言之，文明的“搖籃”可能并不局限于一個簡單的地方;我們的起源故事可能比這一切更加多樣和復(fù)雜。

"Our results support a complex process for the evolution of H. sapiens, with the recognition of different, geographically localised, populations and lineages in Africa – not all of which contributed to our species' origin," the authors conclude.

作者總結(jié)說：“我們的研究結(jié)果支持了智人進(jìn)化的一個復(fù)雜過程，因為我們認(rèn)識到了非洲不同的、地理位置不同的種群和世系——并非所有這些都促成了我們物種的起源。”