南非發現新古人種化石 South African cave reveals burial of early ancestors

Deep within a South African cave palaeontologists have found a burial chamber of bones of primitive humans previously unknown to science.

在南非的一個巖洞深處，古生物學家們發現了一個埋葬着原始人類骸骨的墓穴，這種原始人類是此前科學家不知道的。

The hominids seem to have placed the bodies of their deceased there over many years — the first time such a ritual has been observed in a species other than Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.

這種原始人類似乎在很多年裏一直將逝者的遺體放置在那裏——這是科學家首次在智人(Homo sapiens)和尼安德特人(Neanderthals)以外的人種觀察到這樣的儀式。

The discovery of Homo naledi, as the new species is called, was announced at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and press briefings in the UK. Details of the fossils, which are an extraordinary mosaic of primitive and modern features, are published in eLife and National Geographic.

這種新人種被稱爲“納萊迪人”(Homo naledi)，研究者在約翰內斯堡金山大學(Witwatersrand University)和在英國舉行的新聞發佈會上宣佈了這種新人種的發現。這些化石不尋常地混合了原始人類和現代人類的特徵，相關細節發佈在《eLife》期刊和《國家地理》(National Geographic)雜誌上。

An international team of 60 scientists has worked on characterising the bones of 15 individuals removed from the Rising Star cave 50km from Johannesburg since the initial discovery in 2013.

2013年初次發現後，由60名科學家組成的一個國際團隊一直在致力於表徵從距離約翰內斯堡50公里的“新星洞”(Rising Star)發掘出的15具骸骨。

“With almost every bone in the body represented multiple times, Homo naledi is already practically the best-known fossil member of our lineage,” said professor Lee Berger, the project leader. The species is named after its discovery site; naledi means star in the local Sesotho language.

“鑑於遺骨中幾乎每一塊骨頭都出現多次，納萊迪人實際上已經是人類世系中得到最完整了解的化石成員，”項目負責人李伯傑(Lee Berger)教授表示。該人種根據其發現地命名；“納萊迪”在當地的塞索托語中意爲星星。

Yet many mysteries remain; above all, the age of the fossils. The usual geological dating techniques have not yet given a result, leaving open the possibility that Homo naledi might have lived as long as 2.5m years ago, or at the other extreme, tens of thousands of years ago.

然而現在還有很多未解之謎；首先是化石的年代。通常使用的地質年代測定法還未給出結果，這意味着各種可能性都不能排除：納萊迪人可能生活在遠至250萬年前，或者另一種極端情況下，他們生活在數萬年前。

“Homo naledi is similar to modern humans in some ways, such as the shape of its hands, wrist and feet,” said Professor Chris Stringer, head of human origins research at the Natural History Museum in London. “On the other hand, Homo naledi’s small brain [just a third the size of an adult brain today] and the shape of its upper body are more reminiscent of prehuman and very early human species such as Homo habilis, which lived more than 1.5m years ago.

“納萊迪人在某些方面和現代人類很像，如手、手腕和腳的形狀，”倫敦自然歷史博物館(Natural History Museum)人類起源研究主管克里斯斯特林格(Chris Stringer)教授表示，“另一方面，納萊迪人較小的腦部（僅爲現在成年人腦部大小的三分之一）和上身的形狀讓人更多想起前人類和非常早期的人種，如生活在超過150萬年前的能人(Homo habilis)。”

“Based on these features, Homo naledi could be one of the earliest species of human yet discovered, or a species that retained many features from an earlier stage of human evolution,” he added.

“根據這些特徵，納萊迪人可能是目前發現的最早的人種之一，或者是一種保留了許多人類更早期進化階段特徵的人種，”他補充。