小小樹上古住民――科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)地球上最早靈長類

1、小小樹上古住民一一科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)地球上最早靈長類it ' s called archicebus , roughly meaning beginning long-tailed monkey actually, this creature lived before the monkeys we know of today 55 million years ago , a mere ten million years after the dinosaurs 恐 龍 died out. but archicebus had some primitivee原始的features特征 we ass

2、ociatete聯(lián)系起來with monkeys and the rest of the primates靈 長類動(dòng)物.it had big eye sockets眼窩,for example, and they are angled in a way that meant the animal had good stereo vision立體視覺 it had nails instead of claws and grasping抓，緊握digits手指或足趾,and other unique troits 特性.many of these would have been good for

3、living in trees and , perhaps , capturing捕獲 insects. christopher beard： it，s a foss訂化石that shows a combination結(jié)合of features that we，ve simply never seen beforein any living or fossil primatechristopher beard is with the carnegie museum of natu ral his to ry, in pitt sburgh, and worked on the t earn.

4、the fossil was discovered by a farmer in china.alive, the animal weighed an ounce and wou1d fit in the palm of your hand. the skeleton， s骨 架 completeness 完 整性 and its great age are extraordinary. it was a special time in evolutiori. the first primates were emerging. over time, they would evolve and

5、diverge 分叉into numerous body types and behaviors； some becoming monkeys, some lemurs 狐猴, and one would eventually evolve into ushomo sapiens智人（現(xiàn)代人的學(xué)名）.beard says the lineage血統(tǒng)archicebus was on may not have been the one we came from. beard： but in any case, the take-home picture should be that here i

6、s a fossil that" s very, very close to that evolutionary divergence 分歧and apparently 顯然地, that divergence happened in asia. writing in the journal 定期干ll 物nature, the scientists say archicebus may be the earliest primate skeleton ever found duke university anthropologist a 類學(xué)家richard kay soys, w

7、ell, maybe it? s a murky 清楚的field of study some other primate fossils might qualify. but archicebus was certainly close kin血緣關(guān)系to the first primate and it could help answer some crucial 至關(guān)緊要的questions.richard kay： why did this group of animals get really well-developed vision? why did they get rid o

8、f perfectly good claws and start to have nails on their fingers? and a lot of other characteristics特征, they beg an answer as to why did this change occur.這（種化石）被稱為'阿喀琉斯基猴” 一一大概的意思 是始祖長尾猴。實(shí)際上，這種生物生活在5500萬年前，在 恐龍滅絕的一千萬年后出現(xiàn)，遠(yuǎn)比我們今天所知的猴子（生 活的年代）要早。不過，阿喀琉斯基猴具備了一些靈長類特 征，我們可以將其與猴子以及其他靈長類聯(lián)系在一起。比如 它那大大的眼窩

9、，其凹陷角度說明這種動(dòng)物具有良好的立體 視覺。它有指甲（而不是爪子）以及有抓力的足趾，還有其 他獨(dú)特的特征。這些特征大多是為了適應(yīng)樹上的生活，也許還有助于阿 喀琉斯基猴捕捉昆蟲?？死锼雇懈ケ葼柕拢哼@塊化石上呈現(xiàn)出來的各種特 征是我們之前從未在任何現(xiàn)存的靈長類或者類人猿化 石上看到的?？死锼雇懈ケ葼柕略谘芯拷M工作，他來自（美國）匹 茲堡的卡耐基自然歷史博物館。該化石的發(fā)現(xiàn)者是一位中國農(nóng)民?；钪陌⒖α鹚够?只有一盎司（約28克）重，體型僅為人類的巴掌大小。雖 然經(jīng)過了漫長的年月，化石的骸骨依然保持完好，實(shí)在是一 件了不起的事情。對(duì)進(jìn)化史來說，這是一個(gè)特殊的時(shí)刻。第 一批靈長類出現(xiàn)了。隨著時(shí)間的推移，它們會(huì)不斷演化，產(chǎn) 生分支，出現(xiàn)各種各樣的體型以及不同的行為特征，有的變 成了猿猴，有的變成了狐猴，而其中一支最終演變成今天的 我們一一智人。比爾德說，阿喀琉斯基猴和我們也許并不是真正的同源 血親。比爾德：不過，不管怎么說，（該發(fā)現(xiàn)的）實(shí)際成果就 是一一這兒有一塊化石，它非常非常接近我們的進(jìn)化分支。而這分支看起來源自亞洲?？茖W(xué)家們?cè)谧匀浑s志上 發(fā)表文章，認(rèn)為阿喀琉斯基猴也許是目前發(fā)掘出的最古老靈 長類骸骨。（美國）杜克大學(xué)的人類學(xué)家理查德凱說