Giant Bird Driven Extinct by Egg-Eating Humans
蛋尽鸟绝
About 47,000 years ago, newcomer humans to Australia helped to wipe out an enormous flightless bird by collecting and cooking its eggs
4.7万年前，由于刚踏足这片大陆的人类采集和食用它们的蛋，澳洲大陆上的一种无法飞行的巨型鸟类因而灭绝。
撰文/播音 凯伦·霍普金 (Karen Hopkin)
翻译 Meatle
审校 邰伦玥
Extinction. When species go bye-bye forever, we usually blame things like climate change, volcanic eruption or asteroid impact. But for the giant flightless birds that once roamed the Australian outback, it was an omelet station what did ‘em in. A new study finds evidence that about 47,000 years ago, humans helped to wipe out this avian leviathan by collecting and cooking its eggs. The study is in the journal Nature Communications. [Gifford Miller et al, Human predation contributed to the extinction of the Australian megafaunal birdGenyornis newtoni ~47?ka]
物种灭绝，当这种事情发生的时候我们通常会归咎于诸如气候变化、火山爆发和小行星撞击等原因。然而，对于曾经横行于澳洲大陆的一种无法飞行的巨型鸟类而言，它们的灭绝是因为一家“煎蛋卷小店”。一项新研究发现，4.7万年前，由于人类采集和烹制巨禽的蛋，而使这种巨禽灭绝。这项研究发表在《自然通讯》(Nature Communications)上。[Gifford Miller et al, Human predation contributed to the extinction of the Australian megafaunal birdGenyornis newtoni ~47?ka]
Before humans swept over the land down under, animals of enormous proportions were not uncommon. A two-ton wombat, a thousand-pound kangaroo, and a 500-pound bird now known as Genyornis newtoni were spread across the continent. But most of these so-called megafauna disappeared once humans hit the scene.
Coincidence? Well, it could be. Which is why researchers set out to look for proof that human predation played a role in the demise of Genyornis. (Which only coincidentally sounds like ginormous.)
在人类横扫这片土地之前，巨型动物并不少见。比如一种两吨重的袋熊、数千公斤重的袋鼠和一种被称为“牛顿巨鸟”(Genyornis newtoni)的500磅重的鸟类。但是，当人类踏足了这片土地，大多数的巨型动物都消失了。这是偶然吗？可能是，但也不一定。所以，研究人员才会收集人类对巨鸟的捕食行为造成巨鸟灭绝的证据。（巨鸟的名字Genyornis很巧合地与英文ginormous相像，意为巨大的）
They collected eggshells from hundreds of sites around the country. And they found that the shell fragments exhibited scorch marks that suggested that the eggs had been purposefully cooked over an open flame. Marks that were not consistent with the eggs getting, say, burned up in a wildfire.
他们在全国各地数百个地点收集蛋壳。他们发现蛋壳碎片上有清晰地烧焦的痕迹，暗示着这些蛋曾经被有意置于火焰上烹煮。这些痕迹与被野火焚烧的痕迹并不相似。
Three different dating methods put the eggs’ age in the correct era, and thus place the smoking gun—or in this case, firepit—directly in the hands of hungry humans. Which suggests that our ancestral appetite for over-easy compromised the fitness of this species. Ultimately leading to its egg-stinction.
通过使用三种不同的测定方式，研究人员测定出这些蛋来源的确切年代，因而通过确凿的证据——火堆，将嫌疑人锁定为饥饿的人类。这暗示着我们的祖先对煎蛋的偏好连累了这种巨鸟物种，最终导致了蛋尽鸟绝。
京ICP备11000850号-1 
京公网安备11010502039775号
信息网络传播视听节目许可证0111611号
国家科技基础条件平台
© 2011- 版权所有：中国数字科技馆 未经书面许可任何人不得复制或镜像
京公网安备11010502039775号 
