丹尼索瓦人的活动范围曾扩展到中国

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。

Much like modern humans, the Neanderthals roamed widely throughout Europe.

尼安德特人和现代人一样也曾在欧洲各地游荡。

We know because they left behind extensive evidence, usually bones or tools.

我们知道，是因为他们留下了大量通常是骨头或工具的证据。

But their cousins, the Denisovans, are more mysterious.

但他们的表亲，丹尼索瓦人，却更神秘。

Until recently, they were conclusively linked only to a single cave in southern Siberia, called Denisova Cave, between Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

直到最近，它们只被确定与西伯利亚南部的一个洞穴有关，这个洞穴叫做丹尼索瓦洞穴，位于哈萨克斯坦和蒙古之间。

Scientists had found a finger bone, three teeth, and a piece of skull, which tipped them off to the existence of a whole new lineage of ancient human.

科学家们发现了一块指骨、三颗牙齿和一块头骨，这提示他们存在着一个全新的古人类谱系。

Now, scientists have uncovered more of the range of the Denisovans, says Diyendo Massilani of the Max Planck Institute in Germany.

德国马克斯·普朗克研究所的迪扬多·马西拉尼表示，现在，科学家们已经发现了更多丹尼索瓦人的活动范围。

His team turned up evidence the ancient humans occupied a high-mountain cave on the Tibetan plateau, called Baishiya cave.

他的团队发现了古人类居住在青藏高原的一个高山洞穴的证据，这个洞穴被称为白石崖洞。

"The cave belongs to monks, and monks think it's a very holy place."

“这个洞穴属于僧侣，僧侣们认为这是一个非常神圣的地方。”

In fact, a monk found a piece of jawbone there in 1980, which has been tenuously linked to the Denisovans.

事实上，一名僧侣在1980年在那里发现了一块颌骨，这与丹尼索瓦人有微弱的联系。

But Massilani and his team have now unearthed more conclusive evidence by sifting through cave sediments, and sequencing the genetic evidence the Denisovans left behind.

但马西拉尼和他的团队现在通过筛选洞穴沉积物，对丹尼索瓦人留下的基因证据进行排序，发现了更确凿的证据。

"Body decay. Or people bleeding, or pooping, peeing there, they could leave their DNA."

“身体腐烂。 或者人们在那里流血、大便、小便，他们可能会留下DNA。”

The DNA appears in layers—suggesting the Denisovans inhabited the cave as far back as 100,000 years ago, as well as at 60,000 years ago, and perhaps even as recently as 45,000 years ago—meaning the Denisovans might have overlapped in this region with modern humans.

DNA分层出现，表明丹尼索瓦人早在10万年前、6万年前、甚至是最近的4.5万年前就居住在这个洞穴中，这意味着丹尼索瓦人可能在这一地区与现代人类重合。

The results appear in the journal Science.

研究结果发表在科学杂志上。

Massilani says this method could enable more Denisovan detective work, too.

马西拉尼说，这种方法也使进行更多的丹尼索瓦人侦查工作成为可能。

"There's so many caves where we have evidence of human activity but we don't have hominin remains.

“我们在很多洞穴里找到了人类活动的证据，但我们没有古人类遗骸。

So if we can explore the sediment we can actually start to track down in the sediment the Denisovan DNA."

因此，如果我们能够探索沉积物，我们实际上就可以开始在沉积物中追踪丹尼索瓦人的DNA。”

Denisovans live on today in the genomes of some modern-day humans, from the South Pacific.

丹尼索瓦人至今仍存在于一些来自南太平洋的现代人类的基因组中。

Further genetic work like this might give scientists more clues where early Homo sapiens first met—and mixed with—the elusive Denisovans.

类似这样的进一步的基因研究可能会给科学家们提供更多的线索，早期智人是在哪里与难以捉摸的丹尼索瓦人相遇并结合的。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。