TED2008
Louise Leakey: A dig for humanity's origins
Louise Leakey 挖掘人类的起源
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Louise Leakey问道:“我们是谁？”这个问题把她带到东非大裂谷，她在那里挖掘人类的起源，并提出了让人惊讶的关于人类祖先的新观点。
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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我们是谁?
00:20
That is the big question.
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这是一个很大的问题。
00:22
And essentially we are just an upright-walking, big-brained,
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但是从本质上讲，我们只不过是能够直立行走、拥有一个相对较大的大脑、
00:28
super-intelligent ape.
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智力超群的猿猴罢了。
00:30
This could be us.
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这个可能就是我们（若干年前）。
00:32
We belong to the family called the Hominidae.
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我们属于“人科”这个家族。
00:35
We are the species called Homo sapiens sapiens,
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我们这个物种的学名叫做“智人”
00:39
and it's important to remember that,
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记住这个很重要。
00:41
in terms of our place in the world today
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至于我们今天在这个世界上所属的位置，
00:44
and our future on planet Earth.
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以及我们的未来，
00:47
We are one species
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我们是
00:51
of about five and a half thousand mammalian species
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今天生存在这个星球上的
00:55
that exist on planet Earth today.
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大约五千五百种哺乳动物种的一种。
00:57
And that's just a tiny fraction of all species
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而这只是曾经生活在地球上的
01:00
that have ever lived on the planet in past times.
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所有物种的一小部分。
01:04
We're one species out of approximately,
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我们是在过去的6-8百万年中
01:07
or let's say, at least 16 upright-walking apes
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生存过的16种能够直立行走
01:11
that have existed over the past six to eight million years.
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的猿类动物之一。
01:14
But as far as we know, we're the only upright-walking ape
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但就目前所知，我们是唯一至今还存活在地球上的
01:17
that exists on planet Earth today, except for the bonobos.
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直立行走的猿类，除了倭黑猩猩以外。
01:20
And it's important to remember that,
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记住这一点是很重要的,
01:22
because the bonobos are so human,
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因为倭黑猩猩和人类如此相像,
01:24
and they share 99 percent of their genes with us.
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他们99%的基因都与我们相同,
01:29
And we share our origins with a handful of the living great apes.
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同时我们跟有限的几种现存猿类有着共同的祖先。
01:33
It's important to remember that we evolved.
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要记住我们由猿进化而来，
01:37
Now, I know that's a dirty word for some people,
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我知道这对有些人来说是不敬的说法,
01:39
but we evolved from common ancestors
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但我们的确与大猩猩、黑猩猩和倭黑猩猩
01:44
with the gorillas, the chimpanzee and also the bonobos.
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有着同样的祖先。
01:54
We have a common past, and we have a common future.
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我们有同样的过去，和同样的未来,
01:58
And it is important to remember that all of these great apes
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而且要记住的是所有的猿类
02:03
have come on as long and as interesting evolutionary journey
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都有着同样有趣的进化旅程,
02:08
as we ourselves have today.
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就像我们人类一样。
02:11
And it's this journey that is of such interest to humanity,
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正是这个旅程对人类意义重大,
02:15
and it's this journey that has been the focus
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也正是这个旅程成为了我们家祖上三代以来
02:18
of the past three generations of my family,
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一直关注的焦点。
02:21
as we've been in East Africa looking for the fossil remains
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我们一直在东非寻找我们祖先进化的化石遗存，
02:24
of our ancestors to try and piece together our evolutionary past.
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试图把这些碎片拼起来，重现人类的进化过程。
02:29
And this is how we look for them.
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这就是我们寻找的过程.
02:31
A group of dedicated young men and women walk very slowly
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一群非常敬业的年轻人慢慢的行走在
02:36
out across vast areas of Africa,
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广袤的非洲大地,
02:39
looking for small fragments of bone, fossil bone, that may be on the surface.
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在搜寻露出地表的骨头和化石碎片。
02:46
And that's an example of what we may do as we walk across
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这仅是一个例子，
02:50
the landscape in Northern Kenya, looking for fossils.
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是我们在肯尼亚北部搜寻化石的一个例子。
02:53
I doubt many of you in the audience can see
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我怀疑许多观众看不清楚
02:56
the fossil that's in this picture,
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图片里的化石。
02:59
but if you look very carefully, there is a jaw, a lower jaw,
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但如果你仔细看，这里有一个颚骨--下颚--，
03:02
of a 4.1-million-year-old upright-walking ape
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属于一个四百一十万年前直立行走的猿类，
03:05
as it was found at Lake Turkana on the west side.
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是在Turkana lake的西边找到的。
03:09
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
03:12
It's extremely time-consuming, labor-intensive
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这是非常耗时，耗力的一项大工程,
03:15
and it is something that is going to involve a lot more people,
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而且即将有越来越多的人参与其中，
03:19
to begin to piece together our past.
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重构我们人类的进化史。
03:22
We still really haven't got a very complete picture of it.
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至今为止我们还没有一个完整的框架。
03:25
When we find a fossil, we mark it.
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当我们发现一片化石后，我们对它进行标记。
03:29
Today, we've got great technology: we have GPS.
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今天我们有了先进的技术，我们有全球定位系统GPS.
03:32
We mark it with a GPS fix,
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我们用GPS的位置信息对它进行标记，
03:34
and we also take a digital photograph of the specimen,
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同时我们也对化石进行数码拍照，
03:38
so we could essentially put it back on the surface,
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以便于我们能够把它放回原来的位置，
03:41
exactly where we found it.
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就是我们找到它时的确切位置。
03:43
And we can bring all this information into big GIS packages, today.
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如今我们可以把这些信息放到地理资源系统（GIS）中进行分析。
03:47
When we then find something very important,
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当我们发现了重要的信息，
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like the bones of a human ancestor,
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例如人类祖先的骨骼化石,
03:53
we begin to excavate it extremely carefully and slowly,
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我们就开始非常小心翼翼的对它进行挖掘，
03:57
using dental picks and fine paintbrushes.
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使用牙签和很细的毛刷。
04:00
And all the sediment is then put through these screens,
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然后所有的遗骸都要经过这个筛子进行过滤，
04:03
and where we go again through it very carefully,
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然后还要进行再次过滤，
04:05
looking for small bone fragments, and it's then washed.
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寻找小骨头碎片，之后再进行清洗。
04:09
And these things are so exciting. They are so often the only,
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做这件事经常让我很兴奋。这些是唯一的,
04:13
or the very first time that anybody has ever seen the remains.
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或者是第一次跟人类的会面。
04:18
And here's a very special moment, when my mother and myself
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这就是一个非常特殊的时刻，使我跟母亲一起
04:21
were digging up some remains of human ancestors.
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挖掘出猿人的骨骼残骸的时刻,
04:27
And it is one of the most special things
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这是你跟母亲一起做的
04:29
to ever do with your mother.
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最特别的事情之一。
04:31
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
04:35
Not many people can say that.
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并不是很多人都能够这么说。
04:38
But now, let me take you back to Africa, two million years ago.
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现在，让我把你们带回到200万年前的非洲.
04:44
I'd just like to point out, if you look at the map of Africa,
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我想指出的是，你要是仔细看看非洲的地图，
04:49
it does actually look like a hominid skull in its shape.
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它的形状实际上跟人类的头颅十分相似。
04:58
Now we're going to go to the East African and the Rift Valley.
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下面我们来到非洲东部去看看东非大裂谷.
05:02
It essentially runs up from the Gulf of Aden,
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它实际上开始于亚丁湾，
05:05
or runs down to Lake Malawi.
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一直延伸到马拉维湖，
05:09
And the Rift Valley is a depression.
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裂谷是一条深陷区域，
05:11
It's a basin, and rivers flow down from the highlands into the basin,
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这是一个盆地，河流从高地流进盆地,
05:18
carrying sediment, preserving the bones of animals that lived there.
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带着很多沉积物，其中夹杂了曾经生活在那一带的动物骨骼残骸。
05:22
If you want to become a fossil, you actually need to die somewhere
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如果你想成为一个化石，那就要死在那些
05:26
where your bones will be rapidly buried.
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骨骼会被迅速埋藏的地方。
05:28
You then hope that the earth moves in such a way
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然后你就盼望着地球的运动
05:30
as to bring the bones back up to the surface.
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能将这些骨骼重新带回到地球表面。
05:33
And then you hope that one of us lot
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然后你还要期望我们其中的一员
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will walk around and find small pieces of you.
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将会找到你的化石碎片。
05:39
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
05:40
OK, so it is absolutely surprising that we know as much
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所以说，这是一件让人自豪的事情，我们对我们的祖先
05:43
as we do know today about our ancestors,
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能了解到我们现在所了解的程度，
05:46
because it's incredibly difficult,
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因为这是及其困难的,
05:48
A, for these things to become -- to be -- preserved,
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首先，这些东西要能被埋藏和保留，
05:51
and secondly, for them to have been brought back up to the surface.
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其次，它们要能够重新露出地表面。
05:54
And we really have only spent 50 years looking for these remains,
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我们其实用了50年去寻找这些骨骼碎片,
05:59
and begin to actually piece together our evolutionary story.
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并开始拼凑我们进化的故事 .
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So, let's go to Lake Turkana, which is one such lake basin
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让我们看看turkana湖，它是一个湖盆地
06:07
in the very north of our country, Kenya.
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在我的国家肯尼亚的最北部。
06:09
And if you look north here, there's a big river that flows into the lake
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如果你看北边，有一条很大的河流流入湖中，
06:13
that's been carrying sediment and preserving the remains
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河流携带了含有动物遗迹的沉积物
06:16
of the animals that lived there.
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那些曾经生活在那一带的动物。
06:18
Fossil sites run up and down both lengths of that lake basin,
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化石可能在湖盆的任何位置被发现，
06:22
which represents some 20,000 square miles.
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也就是大约2万平方英里的区域。
06:27
That's a huge job that we've got on our hands.
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这是我们碰到的一项大工程。
06:29
Two million years ago at Lake Turkana,
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2百万年前在Turkana湖,
06:33
Homo erectus, one of our human ancestors,
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直立猿人，我们人类祖先的一支，
06:36
actually lived in this region.
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就曾经生活在这个区域。
06:38
You can see some of the major fossil sites that we've been working
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你可以看到我们在北部涉足过的
06:41
in the north. But, essentially, two million years ago,
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一些主要的化石遗址。但事实上两百万年前
06:46
Homo erectus, up in the far right corner,
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右上角的直立猿人,
06:49
lived alongside three other species of human ancestor.
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和其余的三个种类的人类祖先都曾居住在这一带。
06:57
And here is a skull of a Homo erectus,
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这里是一个直立猿人的颅骨，
07:00
which I just pulled off the shelf there.
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我刚从架子上拿下来的。
07:02
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
07:06
But it is not to say that being a single species on planet Earth is the norm.
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但并不是说地球上只能存在单一物种，
07:12
In fact, if you go back in time,
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事实上，你要是回到从前,
07:14
it is the norm that there are multiple species of hominids
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多种人科动物并存，
07:19
or of human ancestors that coexist at any one time.
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或者拥有共同祖先的人科动物并存是很常见的事情。
07:21
Where did these things come from?
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他们来自何方？
07:24
That's what we're still trying to find answers to,
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这正是我们试图找到答案的问题。
07:27
and it is important to realize that there is diversity
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而且意识到物种的多样性是非常重要的，
07:31
in all different species, and our ancestors are no exception.
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我们的祖先也不例外。
07:37
Here's some reconstructions of some of the fossils
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这里是一些化石的重建结果，
07:43
that have been found from Lake Turkana.
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它们是在Turkana湖被发现的。
07:46
But I was very lucky to have been brought up in Kenya,
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我很幸运在肯尼亚长大，
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essentially accompanying my parents to Lake Turkana
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能陪伴父母亲去Turkana湖
07:53
in search of human remains.
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去寻找祖先的足迹。
07:55
And we were able to dig up, when we got old enough,
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当我们长到一定年纪的时候，我们曾经挖出了
07:58
fossils such as this, a slender-snouted crocodile.
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像长嘴鳄这样的化石，
08:03
And we dug up giant tortoises, and elephants and things like that.
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我们还挖出了巨星龟，大象骨骸这样类似的东西。
08:07
But when I was 12, as I was in this picture,
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这张图片是我12岁时拍的,
08:09
a very exciting expedition was in place on the west side,
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那时候在湖盆西部产生了一个让人兴奋的发现，
08:13
when they found essentially the skeleton of this Homo erectus.
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他们发现了直立猿人的骨骼.
08:20
I could relate to this Homo erectus skeleton very well,
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我对这个骨架记忆犹新，
08:24
because I was the same age that he was when he died.
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因为他死去时的年纪跟我那时候的年纪正好一样。
08:30
And I imagined him to be tall, dark-skinned.
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我把他想象成一个个头很高的黑小伙。
08:34
His brothers certainly were able to run long distances
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他和兄弟们一定跑了很长的路
08:39
chasing prey, probably sweating heavily as they did so.
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去追赶猎物，而汗流浃背。
08:42
He was very able to use stones effectively as tools.
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他会用石头当做工具，
08:47
And this individual himself, this one that I'm holding up here,
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这个个体，就是我手上拿着的这个，
08:51
actually had a bad back. He'd probably had an injury as a child.
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事实上他的背不是很好--很可能在孩童时受过伤.
08:56
He had a scoliosis and therefore must have been looked after
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他由于脊柱侧弯因此必须一直
09:00
quite carefully by other female, and probably much smaller,
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要女性悉心照料
09:04
members of his family group, to have got to where he did in life, age 12.
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他可能是家里比较小的成员，年仅12岁.
09:10
Unfortunately for him, he fell into a swamp
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不幸的是，他掉进沼泽里
09:13
and couldn't get out.
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再也没能出来.
09:15
Essentially, his bones were rapidly buried
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实际上，他的骨头很快被埋没，
09:18
and beautifully preserved.
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并至今保存完好。
09:20
And he remained there until 1.6 million years later,
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他一直躺在那 直到160万年后
09:25
when this very famous fossil hunter, Kamoya Kimeu,
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这位非常有名的化石猎人,Kamoya Kimeu,
09:29
walked along a small hillside
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沿着一个小山坡
09:32
and found that small piece of his skull lying on the surface
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发现一小块头颅骨骼露在表面
09:36
amongst the pebbles, recognized it as being hominid.
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躺在鹅卵石中间，他意识到这是祖先的头骨骼.
09:42
It's actually this little piece up here on the top.
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其实就是最上面的这一小块头颅骨骼。
09:44
Well, an excavation was begun immediately,
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挖掘工程立即开始了,
09:48
and more and more little bits of skull
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越来越多的头颅碎片
09:50
started to be extracted from the sediment.
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从沉淀中提取.
09:54
And what was so fun about it was this:
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这是一项多么有趣的事啊--
09:56
the skull pieces got closer and closer to the roots of the tree,
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头颅骨向树边移动,
10:02
and fairly recently the tree had grown up,
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这棵树是在离现在很近的时候长成大树的，
10:04
but it had found that the skull had captured nice water in the hillside,
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但他发现头骨碎片已经在山坡上找到了水流。
10:09
and so it had decided to grow its roots in and around this,
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于是它决定长出自己的根须，将骨头围住，
10:12
holding it in place and preventing it from washing away down the slope.
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防止它们被水流冲走。
10:17
We began to find limb bones; we found finger bones,
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我们陆续发现了尺骨，指骨,
10:22
the bones of the pelvis, vertebrae, ribs, the collar bones,
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骨盆、脊椎、肋骨、锁骨,
10:25
things that had never, ever been seen before in Homo erectus.
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这些对于直立猿类来说都是史无前例的发现。
10:30
It was truly exciting.
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实在太令人兴奋了.
10:32
He had a body very similar to our own,
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他的骨骼和我们非常相似,
10:37
and he was on the threshold of becoming human.
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而且他代表的就是即将进化成人的一类。
10:41
Well, shortly afterwards, members of his species
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不过，没过多久，这类物种
10:45
started to move northwards out of Africa,
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就开始向比非洲更北的方向迁移，
10:48
and you start to see fossils of Homo erectus
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他们的化石就逐渐在
10:51
in Georgia, China and also in parts of Indonesia.
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在格鲁吉亚、中国，以及印度尼西亚的一些地方被发现。
10:57
So, Homo erectus was the first human ancestor to leave Africa
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所以，直立猿类是第一个离开非洲的人类祖先，
11:02
and begin its spread across the globe.
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之后他们就开始遍布全球了。
11:04
Some exciting finds, again, as I mentioned,
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有一些令人振奋的发现，我前面提到过，
11:09
from Dmanisi, in the Republic of Georgia.
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是在格鲁吉亚共和国的Dmanisi 发现的。
11:12
But also, surprising finds
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最近又有一些让人惊喜的发现
11:14
recently announced from the Island of Flores in Indonesia,
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发生在印尼弗洛雷斯岛上，
11:17
where a group of these human ancestors have been isolated,
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有一群人类祖先被隔离在了岛上，
11:22
and have become dwarfed, and they're only about a meter in height.
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他们逐渐变成了侏儒，只有大约一米高。
11:26
But they lived only 18,000 years ago,
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他们生存在距今只有一万八千年前,
11:30
and that is truly extraordinary to think about.
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这是真正值得我们去研究的问题。
11:33
Just to put this in terms of generations,
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如果用”代“来计算的话，
11:36
because people do find it hard to think of time,
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因为这样人们理解起来比较方便，
11:38
Homo erectus left Africa 90,000 generations ago.
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直立猿人是在9万代之前离开非洲的。
11:43
We evolved essentially from an African stock.
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我们人类的血统基本上都是从非洲承传而来的。
11:46
Again, at about 200,000 years as a fully-fledged us.
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我们人类大概经历了20万年进化成今天的样子，
11:51
And we only left Africa about 70,000 years ago.
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而我们离开非洲只有7万年。
11:55
And until 30,000 years ago, at least three upright-walking apes
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而且直到3万年前，至少有三个能够直立行走的类人猿
12:00
shared the planet Earth.
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同时生活在这个星球上。
12:02
The question now is, well, who are we?
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现在的问题是：我们到底是谁？
12:05
We're certainly a polluting, wasteful, aggressive species,
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毋庸置疑，我们是环境污染，浪费资源，强取豪夺的物种，
12:10
with a few nice things thrown in, perhaps.
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偶尔做一些好事情。
12:13
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
12:14
For the most part, we're not particularly pleasant at all.
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大多是时候我们的行为不令人愉悦。
12:20
We have a much larger brain than our ape ancestors.
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我们比先人有着体积更大的大脑。
12:23
Is this a good evolutionary adaptation, or is it going to lead us
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这究竟是一个有益的进化过程，还是我们向着
12:29
to being the shortest-lived hominid species on planet Earth?
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地球上最短寿灵长动物这个方向发展的必经之路？
12:34
And what is it that really makes us us?
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是什么使我们成为我们？
12:37
I think it's our collective intelligence.
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我想是我们集体智慧的结晶。
12:39
It's our ability to write things down,
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使我们记录历史的本领，
12:42
our language and our consciousness.
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以及我们的语言和意识。
12:44
From very primitive beginnings, with a very crude tool kit of stones,
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从最原始的开端，使用着最简陋的石器工具，
12:51
we now have a very advanced tool kit, and our tool use
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到现在及其发达的工具，人类对工具的使用
12:56
has really reached unprecedented levels:
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以经达到了一个前所未有的水平。
12:59
we've got buggies to Mars; we've mapped the human genome;
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我们已经有能力登陆火星，我们还能绘制人类基因组，
13:03
and recently even created synthetic life, thanks to Craig Venter.
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最近我们由具备了重组生命的本领，这归功于Craig Venter.
13:07
And we've also managed to communicate with people
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我们已经能够跟世界上任何角落的人们
13:11
all over the world, from extraordinary places.
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进行沟通，不管从什么偏远的地方。
13:14
Even from within an excavation in northern Kenya,
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即便是在肯尼亚北部的山洞里。
13:18
we can talk to people about what we're doing.
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我们能够告诉外界我们在做什么。
13:20
As Al Gore so clearly has reminded us,
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像阿尔戈尔提醒我们的那样，
13:24
we have reached extraordinary numbers
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在这个地球上生存的人口
13:28
of people on this planet.
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已经非常庞大了。
13:30
Human ancestors really only survive on planet Earth,
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人类祖先只能在地球上生存,
13:33
if you look at the fossil record,
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如果你看这些化石记录,
13:35
for about, on average, a million years at a time.
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他们每次只能平均存活一百万年,
13:38
We've only been around for the past 200,000 years as a species,
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作为一个物种，我们人类存在了仅仅20万年，
13:42
yet we've reached a population of more than six and a half billion people.
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而我们的数量已经达到了65亿多。
13:47
And last year, our population grew by 80 million.
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去年，我们的人口增加了8千万。
13:50
I mean, these are extraordinary numbers.
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我的意思是，这个数字是相当庞大的。
13:53
You can see here, again, taken from Al Gore's book.
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这里，还是引用阿尔.戈尔的书，
13:58
But what's happened is our technology
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我们的技术
14:00
has removed the checks and balances on our population growth.
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已经对人口增长失去了制衡的作用。
14:05
We have to control our numbers, and I think this is as important
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我们必须控制这个数字，我认为
14:09
as anything else that's being done in the world today.
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这跟我们所从事的其他任何事情是同等重要的。
14:11
But we have to control our numbers,
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我们必须控制我们的人口数量
14:13
because we can't really hold it together as a species.
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因为人太多了这个物种的生存就会有问题。
14:18
My father so appropriately put it,
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我的父亲说得很对，
14:21
that "We are certainly the only animal that makes conscious choices
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我们人类是唯一的能够有意识的做出
14:25
that are bad for our survival as a species."
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不利于自身生存的选择的动物，
14:27
Can we hold it together?
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我们能够很好的生存下去吗？
14:33
It's important to remember that we all evolved in Africa.
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有一点很重要：我们都是从非洲大陆上进化而来的，
14:37
We all have an African origin.
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我们都有一个非洲血统，
14:41
We have a common past and we share a common future.
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我们有着同样的过去和共同的未来.
14:45
Evolutionarily speaking, we're just a blip.
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对进化而言，我们只是昙花一现，
14:49
We're sitting on the edge of a precipice,
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我们坐在悬崖边缘，
14:52
and we have the tools and the technology at our hands
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我们拥有最好的工具和科技
14:59
to communicate what needs to be done
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去帮我们实现让我们这个物种
15:01
to hold it together today.
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继续生存下去的目标。
15:05
We could tell every single human being out there, if we really wanted to.
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如果我们想的话，我们当然可以告诉每一个人，
15:08
But will we do that, or will we just let nature take its course?
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但我们会这样做吗？还是听从大自然的选择？
15:15
Well, to end on a very positive note,
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最后，我们乐观面对,
15:18
I think evolutionarily speaking,
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从进化的角度而言,
15:20
this is probably a fairly good thing, in the end.
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这到头来也许是一件不错的事情，
15:23
I'll leave it at that, thank you very much.
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让它顺其自然吧,非常感谢.
15:25
(Applause)
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（掌声）
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