经济学人下载:动物考古学(1)

One of the most famous edits in cinematic history comes early in "2001: A Space Odyssey".
电影史上最著名的改编之一是《2001太空漫游》。

A primitive hominid hurls a bone club into the air,
原始人类向空中投掷一根骨头棒

and a match cut to a spacecraft instantaneously tells the millennia-long story of human ingenuity.
一根划在宇宙飞船上的火柴瞬间讲述了人类智慧的千年历史。

Tools maketh man. But there was never a human monopoly on tool use, as a new paper in Nature Ecology & Evolution shows.
工具造就人。但正如《Nature Ecology & Evolution》期刊的一篇新论文所示，人类从未垄断过工具的使用。

A team led by Tiago Falotico of the University of Sao Paulo, in Brazil,
巴西圣保罗大学的Tiago Falotico所领导的团队

and Tomos Proffitt of University College, London,
以及伦敦大学学院的Tomos Proffitt

has demonstrated that a species of monkey called the wild bearded capuchin has been employing stone tools for perhaps 3,000 years,
已证明一种被称为野生胡子卷尾猴 的种类使用石器的历史约有3000年，

and that their use of the technology has changed over the course of time.
并且它们对技术的使用也随时间而发生了变化。

Capuchins, chimpanzees and sea otters, among others, are known to use rocks to crack open, respectively, nuts and shellfish.
已知卷尾猴、大猩猩和海獭分别用岩石来敲开坚果和贝类。

And an earlier dig by Dr Falotico found evidence that, in capuchins, this habit goes back at least 600 years.
Falotico博士早前的一次挖掘发现证据证明，卷尾猴的这一习惯可追溯到至少600年前。

Though some may question whether bashing a nut with a rock truly qualifies as "tool use",
尽管有些人可能会质疑用石头砸坚果是否真的属于“工具使用”，

capuchins use both hammerstones and anvils—which demonstrates quite a high level of sophistication.
但卷尾猴使用石锤和铁砧—这展现了一种相当高水平的复杂性。

They also demonstrate sophistication in the wielding of their tools,
它们还在使用工具方面也表现出老练

because not damaging the soft kernel of a nut while breaking the shell takes skill.
因为在打破坚果壳的时候不破坏软核需要技巧。

Cracking open a cashew, the favourite for this treatment, requires the tool-wielder to employ a single, practised motion.
敲开腰果需要使用工具的人做一个简单而熟练的动作。

First, the animal brings the hammerstone down two-handed for a glancing blow on the nut's far side.
首先，动物两只手把铁锤石砸下来，侧击坚果的反面。

It then rolls the stone towards itself, over the nut.
然后它把石头滚向自己，完全覆盖坚果。

Youngsters take around eight years of mimicking their parents to get the knack of all this.
年轻的幼崽要花约8年的时间模仿它们的父母，才能掌握这一切的诀窍。

And although the stones used are not actually modified for the task,
尽管所使用的石头实际上并没有根据任务进行改良，

monkeys are assiduous in searching for and selecting those of the perfect shape.
但猴子们孜孜不倦地寻找和选择最完美的形状。

(They do, however, lack the insight to keep such stones for future use.)
（但它们确实缺乏保存这些石头以备将来使用的洞察力。）

Dr Falotico and Dr Proffitt returned to the site of the previous excavation—a part of Serra da Capivara National Park in the Brazilian Amazon.
Falotico和Proffitt博士返回先前挖掘的地点—巴西亚马逊地区塞拉·达·卡皮瓦拉国家公园的一部分。

They dug into an area of 67 square metres, to which the monkeys bring stones from a nearby stream bed.
他们挖掘了一片67平方米的区域，猴子们从附近的河床上搬来石头。

The site's capuchins use quartzite cobbles as hammerstones, and tree limbs and loose stones as anvils.
这片区域的卷尾猴将硅岩鹅卵石用作石锤，将树枝和裸石用作铁砧。