研究:“传说中的大脚怪”是猩猩的近亲

The legendary Bigfoot has long been thought of as the “missing link” between apes and humans. In a stunning discovery, scientists have unearthed new evidence of the so-called “original Bigfoot,” a 10-foot tall ape that lived nearly 2 million years ago.

传说中的大脚怪一直被认为是类人猿和人类之间“缺失的一环”。科学家发现了所谓“原始大脚”的新证据，这是一个惊人的发现。原始大脚是一种10英尺高的类人猿，生活在大约200万年前。

Known as Gigantopithecus blacki, researchers discovered that the giant primate lived in southeastern China approximately 1.9 million years ago. They also found that the animal was related to the modern-day orangutan after they conducted groundbreaking, new analysis of proteins in tooth enamel.

研究人员发现，这种巨型灵长类动物生活在大约190万年前的中国东南部。在对牙釉质中的蛋白质进行了开创性的新分析后，他们还发现这种动物与现代的猩猩有亲缘关系。

“By sequencing proteins retrieved from dental enamel about 2 million years old, we showed it is possible to confidently reconstruct the evolutionary relationships of animal species that went extinct too far away in time for their DNA to survive till now,” said one of the study’s co-authors, Enrico Cappellini, in a statement. “In this study, we can even conclude that the lineages of orangutan and Gigantopithecus split up about 12 million years ago.”

“通过对大约200万年前从牙釉质中提取的蛋白质进行测序，我们显示了有可能自信地重建出灭绝得太远的动物物种的进化关系，使它们的DNA能够存活到现在，”该研究的一位合著者Enrico Cappellini在一份声明中说。“在这项研究中，我们甚至可以得出结论，猩猩和巨猿的谱系是在大约1200万年前分化的。”

The research also shows that G. blacki, which weighed up to 595 pounds, diverged from orangutans about 12 million years ago. Unlike chimpanzees or bonobos, it is not closely related to humans.

研究还表明，重达595磅的G. blacki在大约1200万年前从猩猩分化而来。与黑猩猩或倭黑猩猩不同，它与人类没有密切的关系。

With this study, we show that we can use protein sequencing to retrieve ancient genetic information from primates living in subtropical areas even when the fossil is two million years old,” the study’s lead author, Frido Welker, added in the statement. “Until now, it has only been possible to retrieve genetic information from up to 10,000-year-old fossils in warm, humid areas.”

通过这项研究，我们表明，我们可以利用蛋白质测序来检索生活在亚热带地区的灵长类动物的古代遗传信息，即使化石已经有200万年了。”“到目前为止，只有在温暖、潮湿的地区才能从一万年前的化石中获取基因信息。”