科学家缩小了对人类祖先化石的年龄估计

Scientists say they have finally calculated the age of the youngest known remains of Homo erectus, which is generally considered an ancestor of our species.

科学家表示，他们最终计算出了已知的最年轻的直立人遗骸的年龄，直立人通常被认为是我们这个物种的祖先。

The fossilized skull fragments and other bones were uncovered on the Indonesian island of Java in the 1930s. Determining their age has been a scientific challenge, and a wide range has been proposed by numerous studies.

这些头骨碎片和其他骨骼化石是20世纪30年代在印尼爪哇岛发现的。确定它们的年龄一直是一项科学挑战，许多研究都提出了一个广泛的范围。

In a report released Wednesday by the journal Nature, scientists conclude the remains are between 108,000 and 117,000 years old. Researchers used five dating techniques on sediments and fossil animal bones from the area, combining 52 age estimates for the analysis. The project took 13 years to complete.

《自然》(Nature)杂志周三发表的一份报告中，科学家得出结论，这些遗骸的年龄在10.8万至11.7万岁之间。研究人员对该地区的沉积物和动物骨骼化石使用了五种年代测定技术，并结合了52种年龄估计值进行分析。该项目历时13年完成。

“I don’t see any way to date this site more thoroughly,” said paleoanthropologist Russell Ciochon of the University of Iowa, an author of the study.

“我看不出有什么方法能更彻底地确定这个遗址的年代。”该研究的作者之一、爱荷华大学的古人类学家罗素·乔乔(Russell Ciochon)说。

H. erectus arose in Africa about 2 million years ago and spread widely there and in Asia, and possibly into Europe. It reached Java more than 1.5 million years ago, and the new dates suggest it died out at least 35,000 years before the arrival there of our own species, Homo sapiens.

直立人大约200万年前出现在非洲，并在那里、亚洲、甚至欧洲广泛传播。它在150多万年前到达爪哇岛，新的日期表明，它在我们自己的物种智人到达那里之前至少3万5千年就灭绝了。