万物简史 第644期:神秘的两足动物(25)

（单词翻译）

It was also discovered that Homo erectus skulls¹ contained (or, in the view of some, possibly contained) a Broca's area, a region of the frontal lobe² of the brain associated with speech. Chimps³ don't have such a feature. Alan Walker thinks the spinal⁴ canal didn't have the size and complexity⁵ to enable speech, that they probably would have communicated about as well as modern chimps. Others, notably⁶ Richard Leakey, are convinced they could speak.

研究还发现，直立人的头骨中还包含（或者说根据有的人的看法，可能包含）白洛嘉脑回，大脑左前区一个与言语有关的区域。黑猩猩没有这样的特征。艾伦·沃克认为，无论从大小还是复杂程度来看，直立人的脑回都不足以使他们学会说话，因此他们也许能和现代黑猩猩一样进行一些交流。以理查德·利基为代表的其他一些人却确信他们能够说话。

For a time, it appears, Homo erectus was the only hominid species on Earth. It was hugely adventurous⁷ and spread across the globe with what seems to have been breathtaking rapidity. The fossil evidence, if taken literally⁸, suggests that some members of the species reached Java at about the same time as, or even slightly before, they left Africa. This has led some hopeful scientists to suggest that perhaps modern people arose not in Africa at all, but in Asia—which would be remarkable⁹, not to say miraculous¹⁰, as no possible precursor¹¹ species have ever been found anywhere outside Africa. The Asian hominids would have had to appear, as it were, spontaneously. And anyway an Asian beginning would merely reverse the problem of their spread; you would still have to explain how the Java people then got to Africa so quickly.

在一段时期内，直立人似乎是地球上惟一的人属。他们特别敢于冒险，似乎以极快的速度迁移到世界各地。完全根据发现的化石来看，直立人中的一部分大约在他们离开非洲的同一时期，甚至是稍早一段时间，就已到达爪哇。一些科学家据此认为，也许现代人类是从亚洲而不是非洲起源的——这种说法且不说是脱离实际的，也是不可思议的，因为在非洲大陆之外，没有任何地方发现过比直立人更早的古代人种。可以说，除非亚洲的人科动物是自发出现的。但无论如何，亚洲起源只会将直立人的迁移方向颠倒过来，你依然不得不解释爪哇人是怎样迅速跑到非洲去的。