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科学美国人60秒 SSS 古代美国人饲养五彩金刚鹦鹉

时间:2019-09-29 02:38:57

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(单词翻译)

This is Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。

Abandoned pueblos2 are scattered3 throughout the southwestern U.S. And at many, archaeologists have uncovered a curious artifact: the skeletons of scarlet4 macaws. The birds' bright red feathers are known to have been an important status symbol, a signifier of prestige, for people throughout the American tropics and the southwest... both in the ancient world and today.

被遗弃的印第安人村庄散布在美国西南部地区。考古学家在许多村庄都发现了一种奇怪的人工制品:五彩金刚鹦鹉的骨架。我们知道,这种鸟的鲜红色羽毛一直是重要的身份象征和威望象征,无论是古代还是如今,对整个美国热带地区和西北部地区来说都是如此。

But macaws are a tropical bird, whose range never extended north of today's U.S.-Mexico border. So how did the pueblo1 people obtain the birds?

但金刚鹦鹉是热带鸟类,其活动范围从未扩大至今天的美国-墨西哥边境以北。那印第安人是如何得到这些鹦鹉的?

To examine the birds' origin, scientists sequenced mitochondrial DNA5 found within macaw bones from two sites in New Mexico: Chaco Canyon6 and the Mimbres region. Turns out, nearly three quarters of the birds had identical mitochondrial genome sequences—meaning the ancient birds came from the same maternal7 line. That suggests they were all the products of a breeding operation, perhaps in modern-day northern Mexico, rather than a random8 collection of wild-caught birds.

为了调查这种鹦鹉的来历,科学家对金刚鹦鹉骨骼中发现的线粒体DNA进行了测序,实验所用鹦鹉骨骼来自新墨西哥州查科峡谷和明布雷斯地区的两处遗址。结果表明,近四分之三的鹦鹉拥有相同的线粒体基因组序列,这意味着这些古代鹦鹉来自同一母系。这表明,它们都是人工饲养的后代,繁育地点可能位于今天的墨西哥北部地区,而不是在野外随机捕获的鹦鹉。

"If it was just more random, you know, forgive the word, 'plucking,' random macaws from the environment, we would have expected to see a type of diversity that you'd see in the wild."

“如果说是更为随机地从环境中‘抓'鹦鹉,原谅我用‘抓'这个词,那我们会发现像野生环境一样复杂的测序多样性。”

Richard George, a PhD candidate in anthropology9 at Penn State.

宾夕法尼亚州立大学在读人类学博士理查德·乔治说到。

"And so when we took our results and compared them to macaws distributed throughout the historic and modern ranges, the results were more analogous10 to other species of animals that were being bred, like turkeys or dogs or pigs."

“当我们将研究结果与金刚鹦鹉古今分布范围进行对比时,发现结果与火鸡、狗或猪等其它饲养动物更为相似。”

The details are in the Proceedings11 of the National Academy of Sciences.

这项研究的详细内容刊登在《美国国家科学院院刊》上。

The discovery adds an additional layer of complexity12 to our understanding of Southwestern and Mesoamerican cultures: they had the sophistication to breed and manage the distribution of these exotic birds. And it's an example, too, of how modern sequencing technology can unlock historical and cultural secrets, that sat waiting in these bones for more than 800 years.

这一发现使我们对西南部和美索美洲文化的理解又增加了一层难度:他们繁育这些外来鹦鹉并管理其分布的能力相当成熟。这也是一个例证,证明了现代测序技术可以揭开在这些鹦鹉骨骼中隐藏了800多年的历史和文化谜团。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。


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1 pueblo DkwziG     
n.(美国西南部或墨西哥等)印第安人的村庄
参考例句:
  • For over 2,000 years,Pueblo peoples occupied a vast region of the south-western United States.在长达2,000多年的时间里,印第安人统治着现在美国西南部的大片土地。
  • The cross memorializes the Spanish victims of the 1680 revolt,when the region's Pueblo Indians rose up in violent protest against their mistreatment and burned the cit
2 pueblos 65ca90a485fd57a9ad58fe1037ea528e     
n.印第安人村庄( pueblo的名词复数 )
参考例句:
3 scattered 7jgzKF     
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的
参考例句:
  • Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来,塞进文件夹里。
4 scarlet zD8zv     
n.深红色,绯红色,红衣;adj.绯红色的
参考例句:
  • The scarlet leaves of the maples contrast well with the dark green of the pines.深红的枫叶和暗绿的松树形成了明显的对比。
  • The glowing clouds are growing slowly pale,scarlet,bright red,and then light red.天空的霞光渐渐地淡下去了,深红的颜色变成了绯红,绯红又变为浅红。
5 DNA 4u3z1l     
(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸
参考例句:
  • DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
  • Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。
6 canyon 4TYya     
n.峡谷,溪谷
参考例句:
  • The Grand Canyon in the USA is 1900 metres deep.美国的大峡谷1900米深。
  • The canyon is famous for producing echoes.这个峡谷以回声而闻名。
7 maternal 57Azi     
adj.母亲的,母亲般的,母系的,母方的
参考例句:
  • He is my maternal uncle.他是我舅舅。
  • The sight of the hopeless little boy aroused her maternal instincts.那个绝望的小男孩的模样唤起了她的母性。
8 random HT9xd     
adj.随机的;任意的;n.偶然的(或随便的)行动
参考例句:
  • The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
  • On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查,发现肉变质了。
9 anthropology zw2zQ     
n.人类学
参考例句:
  • I believe he has started reading up anthropology.我相信他已开始深入研究人类学。
  • Social anthropology is centrally concerned with the diversity of culture.社会人类学主要关于文化多样性。
10 analogous aLdyQ     
adj.相似的;类似的
参考例句:
  • The two situations are roughly analogous.两种情況大致相似。
  • The company is in a position closely analogous to that of its main rival.该公司与主要竞争对手的处境极为相似。
11 proceedings Wk2zvX     
n.进程,过程,议程;诉讼(程序);公报
参考例句:
  • He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
  • to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼
12 complexity KO9z3     
n.复杂(性),复杂的事物
参考例句:
  • Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
  • The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。

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