科學(xué)家縮小了對人類祖先化石的年齡估計

科學(xué)家縮小了對人類祖先化石的年齡估計

Scientists say they have finally calculated the age of the youngest known remains of Homo erectus, which is generally considered an ancestor of our species.

科學(xué)家表示，他們最終計算出了已知的最年輕的直立人遺骸的年齡，直立人通常被認為是我們這個物種的祖先。

The fossilized skull fragments and other bones were uncovered on the Indonesian island of Java in the 1930s. Determining their age has been a scientific challenge, and a wide range has been proposed by numerous studies.

這些頭骨碎片和其他骨骼化石是20世紀30年代在印尼爪哇島發(fā)現(xiàn)的。確定它們的年齡一直是一項科學(xué)挑戰(zhàn)，許多研究都提出了一個廣泛的范圍。

In a report released Wednesday by the journal Nature, scientists conclude the remains are between 108,000 and 117,000 years old. Researchers used five dating techniques on sediments and fossil animal bones from the area, combining 52 age estimates for the analysis. The project took 13 years to complete.

《自然》(Nature)雜志周三發(fā)表的一份報告中，科學(xué)家得出結(jié)論，這些遺骸的年齡在10.8萬至11.7萬歲之間。研究人員對該地區(qū)的沉積物和動物骨骼化石使用了五種年代測定技術(shù)，并結(jié)合了52種年齡估計值進行分析。該項目歷時13年完成。

“I don’t see any way to date this site more thoroughly,” said paleoanthropologist Russell Ciochon of the University of Iowa, an author of the study.

“我看不出有什么方法能更徹底地確定這個遺址的年代。”該研究的作者之一、愛荷華大學(xué)的古人類學(xué)家羅素·喬喬(Russell Ciochon)說。

H. erectus arose in Africa about 2 million years ago and spread widely there and in Asia, and possibly into Europe. It reached Java more than 1.5 million years ago, and the new dates suggest it died out at least 35,000 years before the arrival there of our own species, Homo sapiens.

直立人大約200萬年前出現(xiàn)在非洲，并在那里、亞洲、甚至歐洲廣泛傳播。它在150多萬年前到達爪哇島，新的日期表明，它在我們自己的物種智人到達那里之前至少3萬5千年就滅絕了。