科學家稱，圣誕島的發(fā)現(xiàn)重新繪制了生命地圖

科學家稱，圣誕島的發(fā)現(xiàn)重新繪制了生命地圖

The world’s animal distribution map needs to be redrawn after researchers recently discovered the existence of “Australian” species on Christmas Island.

研究人員最近發(fā)現(xiàn)圣誕島上存在“澳大利亞”物種后，稱世界動物分布圖需要重新繪制。

According to the University of Queensland’s Jonathan Aitchison, the finding revises the long-held understanding of the location of one of biology and geography’s most significant barriers — known as the Wallace line.

據(jù)昆士蘭大學的喬納森·艾奇遜說，這一發(fā)現(xiàn)修正了人們長期以來對生物學和地理學上最重要的障礙之一——華萊士線——位置的認識。

“The Wallace line — named after its discoverer Alfred Russel Wallace — delineates major biological division separating the species with Asian origins from those with Australasian ones,” Aitchison said in a statement.

艾奇遜在一份聲明中說:“華萊士線——以其發(fā)現(xiàn)者艾爾弗雷德·拉塞爾·華萊士的名字命名——劃定了主要的生物分界線，把亞洲血統(tǒng)的物種與澳大利亞血統(tǒng)的物種分開。”

The research was published earlier this year in the journal Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology.

這項研究發(fā)表在今年早些時候的《古地理、古氣候學、古生態(tài)學》雜志上。

“[The Wallace line] runs along the narrow seaways separating Bali from Lombok, and Borneo from Sulawesi,” he explained. “To the west are the tigers, elephants, rhinoceroses and orangutans of Eurasia and to the east, the marsupials and monotremes that are synonymous with Australia.”

他解釋說：“(華萊士線)沿著巴厘島與龍目島、婆羅洲與蘇拉威西島之間的狹窄海道延伸。西邊是歐亞大陸的老虎、大象、犀牛和猩猩，東邊是與澳大利亞同義的有袋動物和單孔目動物。”

Aitchison and his colleagues noted species with Australasian origins while they worked about 1,000 kilometers west of the conventional trace of the Wallace line on Christmas Island.

艾奇遜和他的同事們在圣誕島傳統(tǒng)的華萊士線以西約1000公里處工作時，注意到了一些起源于澳大利亞的物種。

The species’ journey most likely occurred within the last 5 million years, as this is when Christmas Island emerged to form a new landmass, according to researchers.

研究人員稱，這一物種的遷徙極有可能發(fā)生在過去的500萬年里，因為這是圣誕島形成新陸地的時間。

“Christmas Island is a strange and unique place, not just because of its geological history, but also its biological history,” Aitchison said. “We’re excited to see what other weird and wonderful discoveries are ahead.”

“圣誕島是一個奇怪而獨特的地方，不僅因為它的地質歷史，也因為它的生物歷史，”艾奇遜說。“我們很高興看到未來還會有其他奇怪而奇妙的發(fā)現(xiàn)。”