经济学人下载:熊猫遗传学:熊猫的远亲是谁?(1)

Science and technology: Panda genetics
科技：熊猫遗传学

Hey dude. Give me six!
嘿，伙计。用六指击个掌吧！

Two strange mammals illuminate the process of natural selection.
两种不同的哺乳动物阐明自然选择的过程。

Convergent evolution—the arrival, independently, by different species at the same answer to a question posed by nature—is a topic of great interest to biologists.
趋同进化是生物学家们有着极大兴趣的话题，它是指在自然作用下，不同物种独立的共同进程。

One aspect of the phenomenon which has not yet been much looked at, however, is its underlying genetics.
然而该现象在潜在基因方面尚未得到许多的关注。

In particular, an issue not previously addressed is how often such changes arise from similar mutations in the two convergent lines,
尤其是在两条趋势线中来自相似基因突变引起趋同变化的频率，

and how often they have different genetic causes that happen to have similar effects on the organisms’ forms and functions.
以及不同基因对生物的形态功能起到相似作用的概率的方面，尚未得到解决。

That has now been rectified by an examination of two creatures which,
如今通过对两种生物的检验已得到纠正，

though only distantly related, share an unusual feeding habit, an unusual anatomical feature and an unusual name: panda.
虽然这两种动物是远亲，但他们都具有与众不同的饮食习性、解剖特性以及一个不寻常的名字：熊猫。

The giant panda is a black and white bear. The red panda is related to weasels, raccoons and skunks.
大熊猫是一种黑白相间的熊。小熊猫与鼬鼠，浣熊和臭鼬具有亲属关系。

Their habitats—mountainous areas of southern China and its neighbours—overlap, but their last common ancestor lived 43m years ago.
他们的栖息地在华南山区且近亲重叠，在4300万年前，他们有着共同祖先。

They do, though, share a limited kinship, for both are members (along with dogs, cats, hyenas, mongooses, seals and so on) of the mammalian order Carnivora.
尽管如此，由于它们都是食肉目哺乳动物类（像狗，猫，鬣狗，猫鼬，海豹等），所以确实有一些相同的血缘关系。

Which is curious, because both are vegetarian.
令人好奇的是它们都是食草动物。

More intriguingstill, both subsist almost entirely on bamboo (some etymologists think their mutual name is derived from the Nepali phrase nigalyaponya, meaning “bamboo-eater”).
更有趣的是，它们几乎完全以竹子为食（一些词源学家认为它们的共同名字源于尼泊尔语nigalyaponya，指“食竹者”）。