分享到           

https://news.nationalgeographic. ... =&sf192326622=1


大家一起來讀英文吧!(就你英文不好,賣勘ㄊㄨㄚ)
Ancient Royal Tomb Yields Strange New Ape Species



Lady Xia's tomb would have certainly been something to behold. Excavated in 2004, the tomb belonged to the grandmother of China's first emperor, Qin Shihuang. Inside was an array of riches—jade, gold, silver, engraved pottery, and two carriages complete with 12 horses, according to reports from Chinese state media.

Twelve pits in the tomb also yielded bones from an exotic menagerie, including an Asiatic black bear, a leopard, a lynx, a crane—and an unusual-looking gibbon. The skull of this small ape is so strange that researchers now believe the high-status pet belongs to a newly described, but extinct, genus and species.

The researchers gave the creature the moniker Junzi imperialis, which is a nod to the skull's royal roots as well as the gibbon's common role of “scholarly gentleman” (the English translation of Junzi) in ancient Chinese mythology.

Perhaps most importantly, the gibbon discovery provides strong evidence of early human exploitation of the creatures, helping scientists understand the extent of our influence on past primate extinctions, researchers argue in a new study published today in the journal Science.

“There's very little known about primate extinctions—almost nothing,” says study coauthor James Hansford, a postdoctoral research associate with the Zoological Society of London. With gibbon remains in Asia primarily limited to teeth and small bone fragments, the fossil record for these beasts is far from complete.

“Just establishing the fact that it existed is a hugely important thing,” says Hansford.

A TOOTHY GRIN
Thanks to the skull's archaeological importance, the researchers couldn't study the ape's DNA, which calls for destruction of part of the precious bones. Instead, they turned to what's known as morphometric analysis, or studying the specific shape and angles of the skull and teeth.

To the untrained eye, the ancient gibbon skull may bear a striking resemblance to the heads of the tree-swinging apes we know today. “They tend to look fairly similar ... especially once you pile on all the hair,” says Susan Cheyne, vice chair of the IUCN Primate Specialist Group Section on Small Apes, who wasn't involved in the work.

So the study team assembled a database of skull and teeth dimensions for the four living genera of gibbons, using lasers to measure a total of 789 teeth from 279 individuals, as well as 477 skulls. This database allowed them to compare the imperial ape to known species. “What we found from that is it's extraordinarily different,” says Hansford.

The forehead is steeper and the brow is more understated, explains study coauthor Alejandra Oritz, a postdoctoral researcher at Arizona State University. And then there are the teeth. Put simply, it has very big teeth, says Hansford.

“The lower molars are just out of sight,” says John Fleagle, a primate anatomist at Stony Brook University, who wasn't involved in the work. Fleagle agrees with the authors' distinction of the creature as a new genus and species, and he praises the rigorousness of their comparison, which included hundreds of specimens.

“It looked like everything they could get their calipers on,” he says.

He points out that a life in captivity might explain some of the weird bone shapes, since “animals that were raised by humans and given funny things to eat sometimes have funny skeletons.” But, he adds, such effects likely couldn't produce such big chompers.

“It's clearly a weird specimen,” he says.

DOOMED BY TRADE?
Today, all Chinese gibbons are critically endangered, the highest category of threat on the IUCN red list, notes Cheyne. At risk due to deforestation and poaching, the creatures now traipse across only a fraction of the land they once called home.

Some researchers believe this kind of primate devastation is a recent affair. “There was the idea that apes in the past have been somewhat resilient to anthropogenic pressures and incidental habitat loss,” Oritz says in an email. But the imperial gibbon discovery suggests this isn't the case.


Most major extinctions likely occurred in part due to massive swings in climate. Roughly 11,000 years ago, the last ice age loosened its frosty grip. Glaciers receded, temperatures warmed, and many animals began heading toward extinction—giant ground sloths, wooly mammoths, saber-toothed cats, and more.

But the gibbons persisted. The fossil find suggests they swung through the trees of Shaanxi in central China around 2,000 years ago, during a period of stable climate. They seemed to thrive in these forests until just a few hundred years ago, when they vanished from the region, according to historical records.

So where did they go? Most signs point to human meddling.

During this time, the need for farmland grew along with the population, and forests suffered. Gibbons prefer life high up off the ground and are crippled by the loss of an aboral home. Add in a dash of trapping and trading as high-status pets—as evidenced by the entombed gibbon—and the creatures didn't stand a chance.

Things aren't much different for gibbons in the internet age, which has only intensified some of the problems, Cheyne explains. “Gibbons are being openly advertised for sale on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook,” she says. (Hunting for bush meat is also driving some primate species to the brink of extinction.)

Many of these creatures are now teetering on the edge. Hansford and his colleagues are working to protect one such species, the Hainan gibbon (Nomascus hainanus), of which only some 26 individuals remain.

“What we can start to see is that [modern gibbon species are] a relic of what was perhaps a much wider radiation of gibbons and primates across Asia,” says Hansford. “We've lost more and more and more of them. We can't even quantify what we lost because we don't have the records of it.”

The discovery of the imperial gibbon is evidence of this long history of demise, and it highlights the importance of current protections. “The key thing is we can learn from our past,” says Cheyne, “and try to change our future.”


不得不說,一開始沒看內文,以為那個骨頭是人類,秦始皇的阿嬤有那麼厲害的牙,怪不得始皇威武WWWWWWWWW

 


快把萌燦抱回家!
Don’t think, just do. For the heart is an organ of fire.

来提供一个中文新闻(?
http://news.china.com.cn/txt/2018-06/25/content_53387145.htm

中国网新闻6月25日讯 据《纽约时报》报道,英国研究人员确认,在中国一处古墓中发现的长臂猿是一种前所未见且现已灭绝的属种。

2009年,环保主义者、长臂猿专家塞缪尔·特维(Samuel Turvey)在中国一座博物馆内参观时,一个不完整的头骨吸引了他的注意。头骨是在位于中国陕西的一座秦国古墓中发现的,同时被埋葬的还有其他动物。这座墓估计有2200至2300年的历史,墓主人很可能是秦始皇的祖母夏太后。

在特维的伦敦动物学会动物研究所实验室读博士后的詹姆斯·汉斯福德(James Hansford)说,这个头部的形状让特维吃了一惊,它看起来不像他所知的任何现代动物。

本月21日,在《科学》(Science)杂志上发表的一篇新论文证实,他的直觉没错。特维的研究团队明确了该生物是一种新的属和种——帝王君子(Junzi imperialis)长臂猿。在古代中国,长臂猿被视为是士大夫的象征,君子则有“有修养的学者”之意。

亚洲如今现存四个长臂猿属,其中一个物种还是地球上最濒危的哺乳动物。

汉斯福德说,与现存的长臂猿相比,新发现的这个物种有着相对较扁平且较小的面部,且按该物种的大小来说牙齿特别的长。

该团队无法对颅骨和下颌进行DNA分析,但汉斯福德表示,通过数字扫描并将其形状与亚洲数百个同类动物以及德国和英国的收藏进行比较,“该物种十分突出,非常的不一样,绝对可以另外归为一属,”他说。


长期对当时出土的长臂猿遗骸进行研究的动物考古专家表示,经过3D建模和多年的对比分析,最终确认这些遗骸属于一种已灭绝的长臂猿。(陕西省考古研究院供图/东方IC)


未参与研究但与团队成员有协作的苏珊·切尼(Susan Cheyne)表示,此前从未在坟墓内发现过长臂猿。她表示,不论在哪里找到如此古老的长臂猿遗骸都是极其罕见的,因为它们的栖息地在森林,这往往会让它们的骨骼迅速降解。

长臂猿在墓中的放置表明它曾被当作宠物饲养。作为牛津布鲁克斯大学灵长类动物保护副讲师的切尼表示,这一点对该物种来说可能是毁灭性的,可能也解释了为什么它会走向灭绝。

她表示,这一长臂猿可能幼年就被人捕获,因为小长臂猿尤其“又小又可爱,毛绒绒的”。这有可能意味着要杀掉它的母亲,“有可能影响整个种群的社会结构,而它们的社会结构在失去一只成年长臂猿后可能难以维系,”切尼说。“所以,每次捕回一只活体当作宠物,必然意味着在野外失去了更多的长臂猿。”

她说,长臂猿在墓中的出现充分显示了人类对该物种的灭绝产生了影响。

切尼说,长臂猿研究领域近几年已开始蓬勃发展,自2000年起,已新发现现存的八种长臂猿,仅在过去两年就发现了两种。“这不断证明着我们对于这些生物还有许多需要了解的地方,”她说。

已知现存的20个物种包括最近在中国发现的天行长臂猿,以及在中国最南部只能在海南岛上的一小块地区找到的海南长臂猿。她说,这种长臂猿被视为地球上最濒危的哺乳动物,已知只剩不到30只。

切尼说,保护一个物种需要多方努力,包括停止捕猎以及栖息地保护。

杜伦大学人类学教授、大英灵长类动物协会主席乔·塞切尔(Jo Setchell)并未参与研究工作,她表示该发现提供了新的视角。

“更广层面的信息是,我们可能低估了过去因人类而灭绝的灵长类动物数量,”她在邮件中写道。“了解过去的灭绝情况将有助于我们预测现有物种的脆弱程度,从而帮助我们更加有效地进行保护。”

这个牙……好,好厉害WWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
欢迎来到Dragicland,【总版规】请记得要看哦,还有这个也是好东西→如何回复?

TOP

分享到