找到了，今天所有活著的人類祖先的故鄉(xiāng)

一項新的研究確定了今天所有活著的人類祖先的故鄉(xiāng)

A group of researchers say they have pinpointed the ancestral homeland of all humans alive today: modern-day Botswana.

一組研究人員說，他們已經(jīng)確定了今天所有活著的人類祖先的故鄉(xiāng)：今天的博茨瓦納。

In a new study published in the journal Nature, scientists analysed mitochondrial DNA – genetic information that gets passed down the female line – from more than 1,200 people across myriad populations in Africa.

在《自然》雜志上發(fā)表的一項新研究中，科學家們分析了來自非洲無數(shù)人口中超過1200人的線粒體DNA——傳遞給女性的遺傳信息。

By examining which genes were preserved in people's DNA over time, the anthropologists determined that anatomically modern humans emerged in what was once a lush wetland in Botswana, south of the Zambezi River.

通過研究人類DNA中保存了哪些基因，人類學家們斷定，從解剖學角度講，現(xiàn)代人類出現(xiàn)在贊比西河以南博茨瓦納的一片曾經(jīng)繁茂的濕地上。

Though scientists agree that modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) arose in Africa around 200,000 years ago, they have remained uncertain about exactly where on the continent that evolutionary milestone occurred.

盡管科學家們一致認為，現(xiàn)代人類(智人)大約20萬年前就出現(xiàn)在非洲，但他們?nèi)匀徊淮_定進化的里程碑，究竟發(fā)生在非洲大陸的什么地方。

The new study offers an answer to that question and also undermines the idea that our ancestors emerged in East Africa, as limited fossil evidence suggests.

這項新的研究為這個問題提供了答案，同時也削弱了我們的祖先出現(xiàn)在東非的觀點，正如有限的化石證據(jù)所顯示的那樣。

The anthropologist Vanessa Hayes, the senior author of the new paper, said in a press conference that the findings suggested "everyone walking around today" could trace their mitochondrial DNA back to this "human homeland."

這篇新論文的資深作者、人類學家凡妮莎·海耶斯在記者招待會上說，這一發(fā)現(xiàn)表明，“今天到處走動的每個人”都可以將線粒體DNA追溯到這個“人類家園”。