TED2008
Louise Leakey: A dig for humanity's origins
人類起源的探究--Louise Leakey
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Louise Leakey問道“我們是誰？”這個問題把帶到了東非大裂谷，她在那兒發掘人類的進化起源，並且提出了令人震驚的關於我們的祖先的新觀點。
Louise Leakey - Paleoanthropologist
Louise Leakey hunts for hominid fossils in East Africa, in the family tradition. Full bio
Louise Leakey hunts for hominid fossils in East Africa, in the family tradition. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:18
Who are we?
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我們是誰？
00:20
That is the big question.
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這是一個很大的問題
00:22
And essentially we are just an upright-walking, big-brained,
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而實質上我們只是直立行走的，有更大大腦的
00:28
super-intelligent ape.
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超級智能的大猩猩
00:30
This could be us.
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這就是我們
00:32
We belong to the family called the Hominidae.
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我們屬於名為“人科”的的家庭
00:35
We are the species called Homo sapiens sapiens,
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我們是名為“智人”的物種
00:39
and it's important to remember that,
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並且記住那個很重要
00:41
in terms of our place in the world today
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就我們在當今世界上所處的位置
00:44
and our future on planet Earth.
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和我們在地球的未來而言
00:47
We are one species
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我們是
00:51
of about five and a half thousand mammalian species
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今天地球上所存在的
00:55
that exist on planet Earth today.
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大約一千五百種哺乳動物之一
00:57
And that's just a tiny fraction of all species
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而那只是曾經生存在這個星球上的所有物種的
01:00
that have ever lived on the planet in past times.
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極其微小的一部份
01:04
We're one species out of approximately,
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我們是
01:07
or let's say, at least 16 upright-walking apes
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過去六百萬年到八百萬年存在過的
01:11
that have existed over the past six to eight million years.
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大約或者說至少16種直立行走的物種之一
01:14
But as far as we know, we're the only upright-walking ape
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但就我們所知 我們是現今世界上所存的除了波诺波黑猿外
01:17
that exists on planet Earth today, except for the bonobos.
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唯一直立行走的物種
01:20
And it's important to remember that,
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記住這個很重要
01:22
because the bonobos are so human,
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因為波諾波黑猿太像人了
01:24
and they share 99 percent of their genes with us.
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他們與我們有99%相同的基因
01:29
And we share our origins with a handful of the living great apes.
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而且起源都是少數的居住类人猿
01:33
It's important to remember that we evolved.
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記住我們由猿進化而來
01:37
Now, I know that's a dirty word for some people,
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我知道那對於一些人來說很難聽
01:39
but we evolved from common ancestors
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但我們是和大猩猩 黑猩猩 還有波諾波黑猿
01:44
with the gorillas, the chimpanzee and also the bonobos.
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由共同的祖先進化而來的
01:54
We have a common past, and we have a common future.
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我們有共同的過去 而且我們有共同的未來
01:58
And it is important to remember that all of these great apes
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所有這些偉大的物種都經歷過
02:03
have come on as long and as interesting evolutionary journey
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像我們一樣的漫長而有趣的進化歷程
02:08
as we ourselves have today.
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記住這些很重要
02:11
And it's this journey that is of such interest to humanity,
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並且這對人類來說是一個很有意義的旅程
02:15
and it's this journey that has been the focus
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這個旅程成爲了我家三代人
02:18
of the past three generations of my family,
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一直關注的焦點
02:21
as we've been in East Africa looking for the fossil remains
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我們一直在東非尋找我們祖先的動物化石
02:24
of our ancestors to try and piece together our evolutionary past.
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試圖拼合我們的進化史
02:29
And this is how we look for them.
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我們是這樣尋找的
02:31
A group of dedicated young men and women walk very slowly
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一群具有獻身精神的年輕人
02:36
out across vast areas of Africa,
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在廣袤的非洲地區緩慢行走
02:39
looking for small fragments of bone, fossil bone, that may be on the surface.
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尋找可能在地表上的骨骼碎片化石
02:46
And that's an example of what we may do as we walk across
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舉個例子
02:50
the landscape in Northern Kenya, looking for fossils.
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我們在肯尼亞北部尋找化石時
02:53
I doubt many of you in the audience can see
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我不確定你們觀眾是否能看到
02:56
the fossil that's in this picture,
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圖片中的化石
02:59
but if you look very carefully, there is a jaw, a lower jaw,
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但是如果你仔細看的話 這兒有個
03:02
of a 4.1-million-year-old upright-walking ape
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410萬年歷史的直立行走的動物的下顎
03:05
as it was found at Lake Turkana on the west side.
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在西部的圖爾卡納湖發現的
03:09
(Laughter)
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（笑聲）
03:12
It's extremely time-consuming, labor-intensive
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這個工作很花時間 勞動量很大
03:15
and it is something that is going to involve a lot more people,
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當拼合歷史時
03:19
to begin to piece together our past.
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會涉及更多的人
03:22
We still really haven't got a very complete picture of it.
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我們仍然沒有得到全貌
03:25
When we find a fossil, we mark it.
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當我們找到化石時 做好標記
03:29
Today, we've got great technology: we have GPS.
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今天我們有先進的技術 有GPS（全球定位系統）
03:32
We mark it with a GPS fix,
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我們用GPS定位做標記
03:34
and we also take a digital photograph of the specimen,
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還給標本拍數碼照片
03:38
so we could essentially put it back on the surface,
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以便基本上能夠把標本還原在地表上
03:41
exactly where we found it.
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就在我們發掘到的地方
03:43
And we can bring all this information into big GIS packages, today.
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如今我們還能把信息放入GIS（地理信息系統）軟件里
03:47
When we then find something very important,
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當我們發現重要的東西時
03:51
like the bones of a human ancestor,
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比如人類祖先的骨骼
03:53
we begin to excavate it extremely carefully and slowly,
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就開始用牙籤和漆刷
03:57
using dental picks and fine paintbrushes.
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小心緩慢的挖掘
04:00
And all the sediment is then put through these screens,
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並且所有的沉澱物都要經過篩子過濾
04:03
and where we go again through it very carefully,
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還會很小心的再過濾
04:05
looking for small bone fragments, and it's then washed.
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尋找曉得骨骼碎片 然後清洗
04:09
And these things are so exciting. They are so often the only,
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這些事情令人興奮
04:13
or the very first time that anybody has ever seen the remains.
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這是他們面世
04:18
And here's a very special moment, when my mother and myself
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這是我母親和我挖掘
04:21
were digging up some remains of human ancestors.
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人類祖先遺骨的特殊時刻
04:27
And it is one of the most special things
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這是跟母親一起做的
04:29
to ever do with your mother.
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最特殊的事情之一
04:31
(Laughter)
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（笑聲）
04:35
Not many people can say that.
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不是所有人都能這樣
04:38
But now, let me take you back to Africa, two million years ago.
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現在 讓我帶你去兩百萬年前的非洲
04:44
I'd just like to point out, if you look at the map of Africa,
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我聲明一下 你看到的非洲地圖
04:49
it does actually look like a hominid skull in its shape.
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確實形似古人類頭骨
04:58
Now we're going to go to the East African and the Rift Valley.
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現在我們去東非和大裂谷
05:02
It essentially runs up from the Gulf of Aden,
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起於亞丁灣
05:05
or runs down to Lake Malawi.
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延伸到馬拉維湖
05:09
And the Rift Valley is a depression.
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大裂谷是一個凹地是一個盆地
05:11
It's a basin, and rivers flow down from the highlands into the basin,
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河流帶著沉澱物從高地流入盆地
05:18
carrying sediment, preserving the bones of animals that lived there.
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保存著曾經生活在那兒的動物的遺骨
05:22
If you want to become a fossil, you actually need to die somewhere
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如果要變成化石 你要在你的骨骼能夠
05:26
where your bones will be rapidly buried.
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迅速被掩埋的地方死亡
05:28
You then hope that the earth moves in such a way
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然後期待土壤移動
05:30
as to bring the bones back up to the surface.
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能把你的骨骼帶回地表
05:33
And then you hope that one of us lot
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然後期待我們中的一員能夠
05:36
will walk around and find small pieces of you.
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在這兒饒走 找到你的一些碎片
05:39
(Laughter)
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（笑聲）
05:40
OK, so it is absolutely surprising that we know as much
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好了 現在能知道這麼多關於我們祖先的事情
05:43
as we do know today about our ancestors,
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相當讓人驚訝
05:46
because it's incredibly difficult,
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因為這些太難了
05:48
A, for these things to become -- to be -- preserved,
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首先 這些東西要被保藏
05:51
and secondly, for them to have been brought back up to the surface.
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其次 要被帶回地表
05:54
And we really have only spent 50 years looking for these remains,
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我們花費了五十年尋找這些遺物
05:59
and begin to actually piece together our evolutionary story.
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然後開始拼合我們的進化史
06:02
So, let's go to Lake Turkana, which is one such lake basin
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讓我們去圖爾卡納湖 一個湖泊盆地
06:07
in the very north of our country, Kenya.
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在我的祖國肯尼亞的北部
06:09
And if you look north here, there's a big river that flows into the lake
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如果你向北看 有一條大河流入這個湖
06:13
that's been carrying sediment and preserving the remains
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帶著曾經在這兒生活過的動物的
06:16
of the animals that lived there.
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沉澱物和保藏的遺骨
06:18
Fossil sites run up and down both lengths of that lake basin,
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化石遺址就是這個湖泊盆地
06:22
which represents some 20,000 square miles.
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也就是大約20，000平方英里
06:27
That's a huge job that we've got on our hands.
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這是我們手頭的巨大的工作
06:29
Two million years ago at Lake Turkana,
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在兩百萬年前的圖爾卡納湖
06:33
Homo erectus, one of our human ancestors,
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我們的祖先之一 直立猿人
06:36
actually lived in this region.
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居住在這個地區
06:38
You can see some of the major fossil sites that we've been working
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你能看到我們在北面工作的主要的化石遺址的一部份
06:41
in the north. But, essentially, two million years ago,
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但事實上 兩百萬年前
06:46
Homo erectus, up in the far right corner,
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直立猿人 和另外三種人類的祖先
06:49
lived alongside three other species of human ancestor.
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居住在遠處的右上角
06:57
And here is a skull of a Homo erectus,
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這是一個直立猿人的頭蓋骨
07:00
which I just pulled off the shelf there.
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我剛從架子上拿下的
07:02
(Laughter)
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（笑聲）
07:06
But it is not to say that being a single species on planet Earth is the norm.
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但不是說只有這一個物種
07:12
In fact, if you go back in time,
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事實上 如果你回到從前
07:14
it is the norm that there are multiple species of hominids
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有多種原始人類或者人類祖先
07:19
or of human ancestors that coexist at any one time.
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在同一時間共存
07:21
Where did these things come from?
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他們來源於哪兒呢？
07:24
That's what we're still trying to find answers to,
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那就是我們一直試圖尋找的答案
07:27
and it is important to realize that there is diversity
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意識到所有不同物種之間有差異性
07:31
in all different species, and our ancestors are no exception.
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我們的祖先也不例外 是很重要的
07:37
Here's some reconstructions of some of the fossils
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這是在圖爾卡納湖發掘的
07:43
that have been found from Lake Turkana.
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一些化石的復原
07:46
But I was very lucky to have been brought up in Kenya,
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很幸運我在肯尼亞長大
07:49
essentially accompanying my parents to Lake Turkana
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陪同我父母去圖爾卡納湖
07:53
in search of human remains.
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搜尋人類遺物
07:55
And we were able to dig up, when we got old enough,
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當我們年齡足夠大時 我們能夠挖掘化石
07:58
fossils such as this, a slender-snouted crocodile.
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像這樣的一個狹吻鱷魚
08:03
And we dug up giant tortoises, and elephants and things like that.
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挖掘大象龜 大象那樣的東西
08:07
But when I was 12, as I was in this picture,
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但當我十二歲時 正如在圖片里那樣
08:09
a very exciting expedition was in place on the west side,
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在西部一次令人激動的探險
08:13
when they found essentially the skeleton of this Homo erectus.
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當他們發現直立猿人的骨骼時
08:20
I could relate to this Homo erectus skeleton very well,
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我對這個骨架記憶猶新
08:24
because I was the same age that he was when he died.
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因為我當時跟他死去時的年齡一樣大
08:30
And I imagined him to be tall, dark-skinned.
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而且我想像他很高 深色皮膚
08:34
His brothers certainly were able to run long distances
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他的兄弟當然能跑很遠捕獵
08:39
chasing prey, probably sweating heavily as they did so.
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可能汗流浹背
08:42
He was very able to use stones effectively as tools.
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他也能使用石頭作為工具
08:47
And this individual himself, this one that I'm holding up here,
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而他自己 我要說
08:51
actually had a bad back. He'd probably had an injury as a child.
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實際上很不幸 可能小孩時受過傷
08:56
He had a scoliosis and therefore must have been looked after
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他脊椎側凸
09:00
quite carefully by other female, and probably much smaller,
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必須被其他女性小心地照顧
09:04
members of his family group, to have got to where he did in life, age 12.
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他可能是家裡較小的成員 才12歲
09:10
Unfortunately for him, he fell into a swamp
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很不幸的是他陷入沼澤
09:13
and couldn't get out.
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不能出來
09:15
Essentially, his bones were rapidly buried
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他的骨骼被掩埋
09:18
and beautifully preserved.
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而且保存地很完整
09:20
And he remained there until 1.6 million years later,
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一直在那兒直到160萬年後
09:25
when this very famous fossil hunter, Kamoya Kimeu,
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當著名的化石發掘者Kamoya Kimeu
09:29
walked along a small hillside
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沿著小坡走過時
09:32
and found that small piece of his skull lying on the surface
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發現地表上在卵石中間他的頭蓋骨碎片
09:36
amongst the pebbles, recognized it as being hominid.
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認出了這是原始人類
09:42
It's actually this little piece up here on the top.
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這是頂部的小碎片
09:44
Well, an excavation was begun immediately,
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發掘即刻開始
09:48
and more and more little bits of skull
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越來越多的頭蓋骨碎片
09:50
started to be extracted from the sediment.
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從沉澱物種被發掘出來
09:54
And what was so fun about it was this:
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有趣的是
09:56
the skull pieces got closer and closer to the roots of the tree,
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頭蓋骨碎片越來越接近樹根
10:02
and fairly recently the tree had grown up,
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樹最近長大了
10:04
but it had found that the skull had captured nice water in the hillside,
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但發現頭蓋骨獲取山坡的水分
10:09
and so it had decided to grow its roots in and around this,
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所以樹根就長在了這裡面和周圍
10:12
holding it in place and preventing it from washing away down the slope.
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樹根抓著頭蓋骨 避免了頭蓋骨被沖下土坡
10:17
We began to find limb bones; we found finger bones,
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我們找到了肢干骨頭 指骨
10:22
the bones of the pelvis, vertebrae, ribs, the collar bones,
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盆骨 脊椎 肋骨 鎖骨
10:25
things that had never, ever been seen before in Homo erectus.
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之前從來沒見過這樣的直立猿人
10:30
It was truly exciting.
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相當讓人興奮
10:32
He had a body very similar to our own,
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他的身體跟我們很像
10:37
and he was on the threshold of becoming human.
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他處於進化為人類的起點
10:41
Well, shortly afterwards, members of his species
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後來 他的同類
10:45
started to move northwards out of Africa,
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開始從北部走出非洲
10:48
and you start to see fossils of Homo erectus
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你開始在佐治亞 中國 印度尼西亞部份地區
10:51
in Georgia, China and also in parts of Indonesia.
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看到直立猿人化石
10:57
So, Homo erectus was the first human ancestor to leave Africa
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所以 直立猿人是第一個走出非洲的人類祖先
11:02
and begin its spread across the globe.
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然後開始遍佈全球
11:04
Some exciting finds, again, as I mentioned,
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正如我提到的 一些令人興奮的發現
11:09
from Dmanisi, in the Republic of Georgia.
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來自格魯吉亞的馬尼西的
11:12
But also, surprising finds
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也是令人驚訝的發現
11:14
recently announced from the Island of Flores in Indonesia,
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最近宣佈 在印度尼西亞的佛咯勒斯島
11:17
where a group of these human ancestors have been isolated,
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一組被隔離的人類祖先
11:22
and have become dwarfed, and they're only about a meter in height.
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成為侏儒 他們大約只有一米高
11:26
But they lived only 18,000 years ago,
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他們只生存於18,000年前
11:30
and that is truly extraordinary to think about.
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這個很值得我們研究
11:33
Just to put this in terms of generations,
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就世代而言
11:36
because people do find it hard to think of time,
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因為記時間比較難
11:38
Homo erectus left Africa 90,000 generations ago.
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直立猿人在90,000代以前離開非洲
11:43
We evolved essentially from an African stock.
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我們都從非洲血統進化而來
11:46
Again, at about 200,000 years as a fully-fledged us.
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我們經歷了20萬年才成熟
11:51
And we only left Africa about 70,000 years ago.
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我們離開非洲只有7萬年
11:55
And until 30,000 years ago, at least three upright-walking apes
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並且直到3萬年前
12:00
shared the planet Earth.
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至少三個直立行走的物種存在於地球
12:02
The question now is, well, who are we?
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問題現在是 我們是誰？
12:05
We're certainly a polluting, wasteful, aggressive species,
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我們當然是污染環境 浪費資源 好鬥的物種
12:10
with a few nice things thrown in, perhaps.
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可能還夾雜著一些好品質
12:13
(Laughter)
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（笑聲）
12:14
For the most part, we're not particularly pleasant at all.
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對於大部份人來說 我們不是特別滿意
12:20
We have a much larger brain than our ape ancestors.
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我們有比猿類祖先更大的大腦
12:23
Is this a good evolutionary adaptation, or is it going to lead us
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這是好的適應性進化
12:29
to being the shortest-lived hominid species on planet Earth?
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或者這將導致我們成為地球上最短暫存在的人種？
12:34
And what is it that really makes us us?
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到底是什麽造就了我們？
12:37
I think it's our collective intelligence.
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我認為是我們的集體智慧
12:39
It's our ability to write things down,
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是我們記錄事情的能力
12:42
our language and our consciousness.
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我們的語言 我們的意識
12:44
From very primitive beginnings, with a very crude tool kit of stones,
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最原始的開始我們有石頭工具
12:51
we now have a very advanced tool kit, and our tool use
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現在我們有先進的工具
12:56
has really reached unprecedented levels:
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而且工具的使用達到了空前的水平
12:59
we've got buggies to Mars; we've mapped the human genome;
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我們能到達火星 也繪製出了人類基因
13:03
and recently even created synthetic life, thanks to Craig Venter.
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最近甚至創造了人造生命 歸功于Craig Venter
13:07
And we've also managed to communicate with people
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而且我們也能夠
13:11
all over the world, from extraordinary places.
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在全世界範圍交流通訊
13:14
Even from within an excavation in northern Kenya,
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即使在肯尼亞北部的遺跡洞穴
13:18
we can talk to people about what we're doing.
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我們也能告訴人們我們在做什麽
13:20
As Al Gore so clearly has reminded us,
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Al Gore清楚地提醒了我們
13:24
we have reached extraordinary numbers
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我們在這個星球上
13:28
of people on this planet.
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有太多的人口
13:30
Human ancestors really only survive on planet Earth,
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人類祖先確實只存在于地球
13:33
if you look at the fossil record,
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如果你看化石記錄
13:35
for about, on average, a million years at a time.
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平均存活大約一百萬年
13:38
We've only been around for the past 200,000 years as a species,
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我們只是200,000年來的一個物種
13:42
yet we've reached a population of more than six and a half billion people.
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而現在人口已經超過六十五億
13:47
And last year, our population grew by 80 million.
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去年人口增長了八千萬
13:50
I mean, these are extraordinary numbers.
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我的意思是說這些數字特別龐大
13:53
You can see here, again, taken from Al Gore's book.
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再看看這兒 從AI Gore的書中摘取的
13:58
But what's happened is our technology
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但是我們技術的改變已經
14:00
has removed the checks and balances on our population growth.
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失去了隊人口增長的約束和平衡
14:05
We have to control our numbers, and I think this is as important
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我們不得不控制人口數量
14:09
as anything else that's being done in the world today.
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這跟世界上其他任何所做的事情一樣重要
14:11
But we have to control our numbers,
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不得不控制人口數
14:13
because we can't really hold it together as a species.
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因為我們作為一個物種不能團結在一起
14:18
My father so appropriately put it,
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我父親適當地指出
14:21
that "We are certainly the only animal that makes conscious choices
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我們是唯一能夠有意識的做出
14:25
that are bad for our survival as a species."
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不利於自身生存的選擇的物種
14:27
Can we hold it together?
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我們能夠團結嗎？
14:33
It's important to remember that we all evolved in Africa.
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記住我們在非洲演變很重要
14:37
We all have an African origin.
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我們都起源於非洲
14:41
We have a common past and we share a common future.
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我們有共同的過去和未來
14:45
Evolutionarily speaking, we're just a blip.
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進化學上講 我們只是一個標誌
14:49
We're sitting on the edge of a precipice,
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我們處在斷崖的邊緣
14:52
and we have the tools and the technology at our hands
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手中有工具和技術
14:59
to communicate what needs to be done
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團結一致
15:01
to hold it together today.
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互相交流需要做什麽
15:05
We could tell every single human being out there, if we really wanted to.
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如果願意我們能告訴在那兒的每個人
15:08
But will we do that, or will we just let nature take its course?
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但我們會那樣做 或者我們只是順其自然？
15:15
Well, to end on a very positive note,
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好了 做個樂觀的總結
15:18
I think evolutionarily speaking,
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我想進化學角度講
15:20
this is probably a fairly good thing, in the end.
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這最終可能是一件相當好的事情
15:23
I'll leave it at that, thank you very much.
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就講到這裡 非常感謝
15:25
(Applause)
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（掌聲）
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Louise Leakey - PaleoanthropologistLouise Leakey hunts for hominid fossils in East Africa, in the family tradition.
Why you should listen
Louise Leakey is the third generation of her family to dig for humanity's past in East Africa. In 2001, Leakey and her mother, Meave, found a previously unknown hominid, the 3.5-million-year-old Kenyanthropus platyops, at Lake Turkana -- the same region where her father, Richard, discovered the "Turkana Boy" fossil, and near Tanzania's Olduvai Gorge, where her grandparents, Louise and Mary Leakey, discovered the bones of Homo habilis.
In August 2007 Louise and Meave, both National Geographic Explorers-in-Residence, dug up new H. habilis bones that may rewrite humanity's evolutionary timeline. We imagine that we evolved from apes in an orderly progression from ape to hominid to human, but the Leakeys' find suggests that different species of pre-humans actually lived side by side at the same time for almost half a million years.
Louise Leakey | Speaker | TED.com