在非洲发现的数百个人类足迹化石揭示了古老的传统

在非洲发现的数百个人类足迹化石揭示了古老的传统

Hundreds of fossilized human footprints made between 5,760 and 19,100 years ago have been discovered in Africa, shedding light on what life was like in ancient communities, according to a new study. This represents the largest collection of fossilized footprints found in Africa to date.

一项新的研究发现，在非洲发现了数百个人类足迹化石，这些脚印形成于5760年至19,100年前，揭示了古代社会的生活状态。这是迄今为止在非洲发现的最大的化石脚印。

Researchers believed the 408 footprints, which form 17 different tracks, belonged to 14 adult females, two adult males and one juvenile male.

研究人员认为，这408个脚印形成17条不同的足迹，分别属于14名成年女性、2名成年男性和1名少年男性。

"The footprints were made in a volcanic mudflow, and when that wet ash dried it hardened almost like concrete," said Kevin Hatala, study author and assistant professor of biology at Chatham University in Pennsylvania, in an email to CNN. "

“这些足迹是在火山泥流中形成的，当潮湿的火山灰变干后，它几乎像混凝土一样变硬，”研究报告的作者、宾夕法尼亚州查塔姆大学的生物学助理教授凯文·哈塔拉在给CNN的电子邮件中说。”

So the footprint surface itself is very resilient. But this surface was also buried by other layers of sediments, which helped to form protective layers that shielded the surface from the elements for thousands of years."

所以足迹表面本身是很有弹性的。但是，这个表面也被其他的沉积层所掩埋，这有助于形成保护层，使这个表面在几千年的时间里不受自然因素的影响。”

The study published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.

这项研究周四发表在《科学报告》杂志上。

The footprints are located at the Engare Sero site, just south of Lake Natron, in northern Tanzania.

这些足迹位于坦桑尼亚北部纳特隆湖以南的Engare Sero遗址。

"It is notable that the site, which preserves the most abundant assemblage of hominin footprints currently known from Africa, is within roughly 100 km [62 miles] of the site of Laetoli, which preserves the earliest confidently attributed hominin footprints," the authors wrote in the study.

研究报告的作者写道:“值得注意的是，该遗址保存了迄今为止在非洲发现的最丰富的古人类足迹组合，距离拉多里遗址大约100公里(62英里)，拉多里遗址保存了最早的古人类足迹。”

The site was discovered by members of the local Maasai community, and they shared this information with conservationists in 2008. About 56 human footprints were visible at the site in 2009 when the research team arrived thanks to natural erosion.

这个遗址是当地马赛族人发现的，他们在2008年与自然资源保护主义者分享了这一信息。2009年，由于自然侵蚀作用，研究小组到达此地时，大约有56个人类脚印清晰可见。

Clues to ancient human behaviors

古代人类行为的线索

Fossilized footprints are unique because they can preserve potential evidence of human behaviors and activities.

足迹化石是独一无二的，因为它们可以保存人类行为和活动的潜在证据。

"Footprints preserve amazing windows to the past, through which we can directly observe snapshots of people moving across their landscapes at specific moments in time," Hatala said.

哈塔拉说：“足迹保留了令人惊叹过去之窗，通过这些窗口，我们可以直接观察到人们在特定时刻穿越风景的快照。”。

"They can inform us of how fast people were moving, in which direction they were heading, how large their feet were and sometimes whether the people who made them may have been traveling in groups.

“它们可以告诉我们，人们移动的速度有多快，他们朝哪个方向移动，他们的脚有多大，有时还能告诉我们，留下它们(指足迹)的人是否曾结伴而行。”

With such rich details, we can directly observe behaviors in the fossil record, something that is very difficult to do with other forms of data."

有了这些丰富的细节，我们可以直接观察化石记录中的行为，这是用其他形式的数据很难做到的。”

In order to get a sense of the information contained within the footprints, Hatala and his colleagues studied the sizes, spacings and orientations of the footprints. Spacing and orientation can share the speed and direction of someone's movement, while size can be used to estimate who made the footprints.

为了了解足迹所包含的信息，哈塔拉和他的同事们研究了脚印的大小、间隔和方向。间隔和方向可以了解一个人移动的速度和方向，而大小可以用来估计谁留下了脚印。

They were able to compare this data with that of footprints made by living humans to determine which footprints likely belonged to adults, juveniles, males and females, Hatala said.

哈塔拉说，他们能够将这些数据与现存人类的足迹进行比较，从而确定哪些足迹可能属于成年、未成年、男人和女人。

"With these estimates, we were able to gain a detailed picture of who was traveling across this surface, how they were moving and whether or not they may have been traveling together," he said.

“有了这些估计，我们能够获得关于谁在这个表面旅行的详细图片，他们是如何移动的，以及他们是否可能一起旅行，”他说。

This data was also compared with patterns of modern hunter-gatherer societies to understand the potential scenarios associated with these grouped footprints. And they realized that it was rare for large groups of adult females to travel together without adult males or children.

这些数据还与现代狩猎采集社会的模式进行了比较，以了解与这些分组足迹相关的潜在场景。他们意识到，一大群成年女性在没有成年男性或孩子陪伴的情况下一起旅行是很罕见的。

"We hope that our study motivates future research that might help refine our abilities to use these amazing snapshots to reconstruct past behaviors," Hatala said. "At Engare Sero, our focus has shifted to site conservation.

哈塔拉说:“我们希望我们的研究能激发未来的研究，帮助我们完善使用这些令人惊叹的快照来重现过去行为的能力。”“在Engare Sero遗址，我们的重点已经转移到场地保护。

Before we excavate any further, we want to work with the Tanzanian government to develop a long-term conservation plan, such that the site is still accessible for many generations to come."

在我们进一步挖掘之前，我们希望与坦桑尼亚政府合作，制定一个长期的保护计划，这样，这个遗址对未来的许多代人来说仍然是可以进入的。”