動物界不爲人知的10對"親戚"(3)

oes And Indian Wolves

3.澳洲野狗和印第安狼

The bond between dingoes and wolves might not come as a jaw-dropping surprise. They're dogs after all, right? Wrong. A groundbreaking—and long overdue—study finally buried the belief that the dingo is a product of feral domestic dogs. Listed as a threatened species in 2008, dingoes wore the label of being Australia's own native dog for over two centuries, but it might be more correct to call them Australian wolves.

澳洲野狗與狼的聯繫可能不會讓你吃驚到掉下巴。因爲它們都是犬，不是嗎？這種想法完全錯誤。大家普遍認爲澳洲野狗是野生本土野狗的後代，但一個具有開創性卻又長期被擱置的研究最終顛覆了大家的這一共識。2008年的一個危險物種清單上指出，兩百年來，澳洲野狗一直都被認爲是澳大利亞的本土犬種，但是稱他們爲印第安狼可能更加確切。

The Sydney study discovered that dingoes showed no conclusive signs of being descended from dogs, were not a subspecies, and were completely apart from dogs. Dingoes were never dogs, period. They are, however, related to the one of the smallest wolf species on the planet, the reddish, 1-meter-long (3 ft) Indian wolf. Spending up to 5,000 years in isolation genetically created the dingo as a separate and true canid species. With wolves, they share the pack dynamics of having pups once a year, which are raised by the whole family group, as well as territorial howling. But it's interesting to note that the Indian wolf almost never howls, even though it is capable, and researchers still don't understand why.

悉尼的一項研究發現沒有決定性證據表明澳洲野狗的祖先是狗，或是子系，所以澳洲野狗不是狗，也與狗完全無關。然而它們與地球上的某一最小的狼羣物種有關聯，這種狼羣身長一米，皮毛微紅，名叫印第安狼。二者長達5000年的分離使得澳洲野狗從基因上變成了一種完全獨立的犬科動物。它們與印第安狼一樣，每年只生一窩，並由整個家族撫養長大，同時都會發出嚇人的咆哮聲。但有趣的是，印第安狼從來不咆哮，即使它們有這個能力，而這也一直困擾着研究人員。

l Carp And Koi Fish

2.銀鯽和錦鯉

Koi fish are iconic; they stand for grace, beauty, and elitism. These brightly colored fish have a family connection to the wild gibel carp. The gibel is a plain, humpbacked fish with a genetic surprise. It's what the goldfish would look like without human interference. Every goldfish today, despite their varied looks, are descended from the wild gibel carp, and interbreeding will result in fertile fry since they are genetically identical. Today's goldfish are nothing more than modified gibel carp; they remain the same species, and the koi is a relative.

錦鯉是魚中的偶像，它們代表着優雅、美麗和精英。這些色彩鮮豔的錦鯉和野生銀鯽有親戚關係。銀鯽不過是一種基因變異的普通弓背魚類。如果沒有人爲干涉，金魚就會長成這樣。今天所有的金魚，除了長相不一，都是由野生銀鯽進化而來，因爲它們基因相同，雜交會產生很多魚苗。如今的金魚和改良後的銀鯽差不多，都是同一個物種，和錦鯉是近親。

Their distant link, both being members of the family cyprinidae, is no barrier for romance, either. Goldfish and koi can interbred, but like horses and donkeys, the offspring produced will be sterile. Such offspring are also dull compared to their colorful parents and lack the mouth whiskers of true koi, but will be tougher than both species and able to live in worse water conditions.

他們有着遙遠的聯繫，都是鯉科的成員，它們之間的愛情也暢通無阻。金魚和錦鯉可以雜交，就像馬和驢雜交一樣，但是它們的後代是不育的，比起色彩繽紛的父母，它們色彩單一，沒有純種錦鯉的嘴和鬍鬚，但是他們比純種金魚和錦鯉更頑強，能在更差的水域環境中生活。

Researchers have also recently proven that the three-second memory attributed to goldfish is a joke. They have a memory of at least three months and can recognize different colors and noises. Able to live for a couple of decades, they are also smart enough to learn simple tricks.

近日，研究人員發現，金魚只有三分之二的記憶完全是謬誤。它們至少有3個月的記憶，能夠識別不同的顏色和聲音，壽命長達十幾年，它們非常聰明，能學習簡單的技巧。

ns And Kangaroos

1.人類和袋鼠

A diminutive hopper named Matilda, a tammar wallaby, became the first kangaroo to have her genetic code mapped. The Australian researchers were in for a shock when they compared her code with a human's. They had expected the comparison to be a complete mismatch, but it turned out that the genomes of the two species were more than just similar. Apart from a couple of differences, the genes were identical, and many of them were arranged in the same order. Both species hold large pieces of genetic information about the other.

一隻身材矮小叫瑪蒂爾達的沙袋鼠，是第一隻擁有遺傳密碼的袋鼠。當澳大利亞研究員把她的遺傳密碼和人類對比時，結果讓人震驚。他們本以爲基因對照完全不匹配，但結果卻是兩個物種基因組非常相似。除了一些差異外，兩種物種的基因是同源的，很多基因的排列順序也一致。兩個物種都擁有大量彼此的遺傳信息。

It made more sense when the researchers also discovered that people and these bouncy marsupials had a common ancestor that lived at least 150 million years ago. Mice separated from humans only 70 million years ago, but scientists feel that kangaroos can provide more answers about human evolution when it comes to why some DNA remained the same for eons while other DNA changed. By comparing different genomes from species, unknown genes can be identified, and Matilda revealed 14 new genes never before seen in kangaroos, which might possibly also be present in humans, waiting to reveal more about ourselves.

當研究人員發現人類和活潑的袋類動物在1.5億年前有共同祖先時，這種說法變得更有道理。儘管鼠類和人類分離只發生在7000萬年前，但科學家認爲當談到爲什麼億萬年來，一些DNA保持不變而其他DNA會改變等人類進化問題時，袋鼠可以提供更多的答案。通過對物種間不同基因組進行比較，可以確定未知基因。在瑪蒂爾達體內發現的14個之前未在袋鼠體內發現的新基因可能也存在於人類體內，只等着我們更深層次的挖掘自己。

審校：哎呀 校對：落花生 編輯：Freya然