第1916期:Humans and Neanderthals: An ancient love story

The ancient remains of a female Neanderthal found in a remote cave in the mountains of Siberia are the source of the latest revelations about the sex lives of our ancestors. Hidden within her genome are traces of DNA from modern humans which reveal a genetic crossover that took place 100,000 years ago.

在西伯利亚山区一个偏远的洞穴中发现的女性尼安德特人的古代遗骸是有关我们祖先性生活的最新启示的来源。 她的基因组中隐藏着现代人类的 DNA 痕迹，揭示了 10 万年前发生的基因交叉。

It means that we were interbreeding with our heavy-browed, stocky and now extinct relatives much earlier than was thought. Previous research had suggested that the two species first mixed about 60,000 years ago when humans migrated out of Africa and started to spread around the world. As they left the continent they met and mingled with the Neanderthals, who lived across Europe and Asia.

这意味着我们与眉毛浓密、身材矮胖、现已灭绝的近亲进行杂交的时间比人们想象的要早得多。 之前的研究表明，这两个物种在大约 6 万年前首次混合，当时人类走出非洲并开始传播到世界各地。 当他们离开大陆时，他们遇到了生活在欧洲和亚洲各地的尼安德特人并与之交往。

But the finding that interbreeding took place tens of thousands of years before suggests that some early humans left Africa way ahead of the crowds. However the circumstances behind these early interspecies encounters remain unclear and whether they took place by choice or by force is not known.

但杂交发生在数万年前的发现表明，一些早期人类远远领先于人群离开了非洲。 然而，这些早期物种间遭遇背后的情况仍不清楚，也不知道它们是自愿发生的还是被迫发生的。

词汇表

remote 遥远的，偏远的
ancestors 祖先
crossover 交叉
extinct 绝种的，已经灭绝的
migrated 迁徙，移居
mingled 融合，（此处）交配
circumstances 境况，情形