如果脑子比较小的古猿不是工具制造者，那他们直立行走的进化优势是什么？
If the small-brained australopithecines were not toolmakers, what evolutionary advantage did they gain by walking upright?
本周，南方古猿人的骨骼在约翰尼斯堡金山大学公布于众。
This week, bones from Australopithecus Sediba are unveiled at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
但是这个南方古猿谱系的特性，以及早期人属的特征都是未知的。
But the identity of that lineage, and the characteristics of early Homo, are unknown.
南方古猿是似类人猿动物，它们能像人一样直立行走，但仍然没有离开树木。
Australopithecenes were apelike creatures that walked upright, like people, but had still not forsaken the trees.
南方古猿是早期原始人类的一部分，被认为是祖先人种，现代人就由此而来。
Australopithecus was a group of early hominids that is reckoned to be the ancestral genus of Homo, to which modern man belongs.
属于原始人类南方古猿。
研究人员称该化石是兼具古猿类和现代人类双重特点“令人惊讶的综合体”。
They described the remains as "a surprising Mosaic" of primitive and modern features.
这些特征让该团队有足够的理由认为，它就是最有可能进化为人类的南方古猿物种。
These traits are enough for the team to propose it as the australopith species most likely to have given rise to Homo.
源泉种的大脑像猩猩一样，为420立方厘米——对南方古猿来说，这不算什么稀罕。
Its size is a chimplike 420 cubic centimeters—not at all unusual for something called Australopithecus.
运用扫描电子显微镜，对4枚禄丰古猿牙齿（恒齿）的釉质结构进行了观察研究。
The enamel microstructure of 4 permanent teeth of Lufengpithecus lufengensis was observed with SEM.
在地域和时间看，南方古猿惊奇种极有可能是人类的直接祖先，然而，这也并不是最后的定论。
Garhi was certainly in the right place and time to be the immediate ancestor to Homo. Whether it is, however, remains to be seen.
在坦桑尼亚Laetoli所发现的神秘的足印说明古猿在370万年前可能具有足弓结构。
Mysterious footprints left at Laetoli in Tanzania show that a hominin of this time, 3.7 million years ago, did indeed have arches in its feet.
1991年，考古工作者在郧县曲远河畔发掘的两个完整的南方古猿头骨化石，定名为“郧县人”。
In 1991, two completed head fossils of southern ancient apes, named "Yun county people", had been found in Quyuan river band in Yun county.
这表明产生人类的神经系统变化可能早于南方古猿大脑的扩张——大脑扩张至今仍被认为是人类出现的重要因素。
That suggests the neurological changes which gave rise to humanity may have predated the brain's expansion-an event that had, hitherto, been regarded as crucial to the emergence of humans.
斯特雷特还说，根据牙齿和颚的大小提出的关于南方古猿日常饮食以及它们为什么灭绝的过分简单的想法需要重新评估。
And that, says Strait, suggests that simplistic ideas about australopithecine diets, based on tooth and jaw size, and why they went extinct, need to be reevaluated.
目前，迄今为止发现的与人类最为相似的南方古猿正逐渐解开这团迷雾——它阐明了早期人类是由哪个物种演化而来的。
Now the most human-like australopithecine found to date is clarifying things-and staking a claim to be the species from which early humans evolved.
李·伯格尔博士推断南方古猿sediba可能直接进化成了直立人，这使“能人”成为进化的旁支，甚至不是人属的一部分。
Dr Berger posits that sediba may have evolved directly into Homo erectus, leaving habilis as an evolutionary sideline, and not even part of the genus Homo.
那时，人类祖先的第一个头盖骨在非洲出土：生在约300万至200万年前的小孩汤恩，现在公认为是一名南方古猿非洲种成员。
That's when the first skull of a human ancestor was unearthed in Africa: the Taung child, now recognized as a member of Australopithecus africanus, which lived about 3 million to 2 million years ago.
斯特雷特认为，虽然南方古猿非洲种吃多种多样相差很大的食物，但在成熟的水果和它所偏好的其它动植物短缺的旱季就可能依赖坚果。
Strait thinks that A. africanus ate a wide variety of foods but could rely on nuts in dry seasons when the ripe fruit and other plants and animals it preferred were scarce.
从4月报道获悉，在一个南非洞穴中发现了190万年前的的骨骼，南方古猿sediba让我们依稀窥见到我们人类进化的朦胧历史。
Reported in April and known from two 1.9-million-year-old skeletons discovered in a South African cave, Australopithecus sediba offers a glimpse of a hazy time in our lineage's evolution.
星期三，该组研究人员在一个新闻发布会上说，这种既像类人猿又像人类的混合特征表明，这个新的物种是南方古猿和人类之间的过度类型。
This mixture of apelike and humanlike features suggests that the new species was transitional between the australopithecines and humans, the researchers said at a news conference on Wednesday.
许多人类学家将拉多里脚印归属为南方古猿(Australopithecusafarensis)，该物种包括被命名为露西的局部骨架。
Many anthropologists attribute the Laetoli prints to Australopithecus afarensis, the species that includes the partial skeleton dubbed Lucy.
“露西”属于一种称为南方古猿阿法系(Australopithecusafarensis)的古代人种，大约320万年前生活在这一地区。
Lucy belonged to a species called Australopithecus afarensis and lived in the region around 3.2m years ago.
采用电子自旋共振（ESR）测年法，对元谋县竹棚豹子洞箐（86 0 3）和小河蝴蝶梁子（870 4 ）两个古猿遗址的化石进行了测定。
The fossils in two ancient ape relict sites (8603, 8704) of Yuanmou have been determined by the ESR dating method.
时间轴的另一端是人属，考虑到著名的南方古猿阿法种露西(LucyAustralopithecus afarensis)，人属可以认为是最接近于人类的第一种生物。
On the timeline's other side is the Homo genus, the first creatures whom one would recognize - with all due respect to Lucy's famous A. Afarensis - as close to human.
严格说来，我们穿越时光之旅的下一站将停留在已有340万年的马卡（Maka）遗址，此地曾出土了南方古猿阿法种（Australopithecus afarensis）的一块颌骨以及其他一些遗骸。
Strictly speaking, our next stop on the walk through time should have been a 3.4-million-year-old site called Maka, which had yielded a jaw and some other remains of Australopithecus afarensis.
同时，亚利桑那州立大学(Arizona State University)的古人类学家威廉·金贝尔(William Kimbel)主张，虽然sediba可能不是人类的一个直系祖先，但还是应当归为人属这一类，而非南方古猿。
Meanwhile, Arizona State University paleoanthropologist William Kimbel argued that A. sediba should have been classified as Homo, though it may not have been a direct human ancestor.
同时，亚利桑那州立大学(Arizona State University)的古人类学家威廉·金贝尔(William Kimbel)主张，虽然sediba可能不是人类的一个直系祖先，但还是应当归为人属这一类，而非南方古猿。
Meanwhile, Arizona State University paleoanthropologist William Kimbel argued that A. sediba should have been classified as Homo, though it may not have been a direct human ancestor.
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