You have no idea where camels really come from | Latif Nasser

譯者: Yan Yan 審譯者: Regina Chu

So, this is a story

今天這個故事是關於

about how we know what we know.

我們如何認知我們所知道的事物。

It's a story about this woman,

這個故事是關於這位女性：

Natalia Rybczynski.

娜塔莉亞·瑞辛斯基。

She's a paleobiologist,

她是一位古生物學家。

which means she specializes in digging up really old dead stuff.

也就是說她的專長 就是挖掘那些古老的死東西。

(Audio) Natalia Rybczynski: Yeah, I had someone call me "Dr. Dead Things."

（音頻）娜塔莉亞·瑞辛斯基： 是的，有些人就稱我為「死物博士」

Latif Nasser: And I think she's particularly interesting

拉蒂夫·納賽爾： 而且我覺得她特別有趣，

because of where she digs that stuff up,

因為她挖掘那些東西的地方

way above the Arctic Circle in the remote Canadian tundra.

都是在北極圈內， 偏遠的加拿大苔原地區。

Now, one summer day in 2006,

2006 年夏季的一天，

she was at a dig site called the Fyles Leaf Bed,

她在一個叫法爾斯葉床的 岩層挖掘現場，

which is less than 10 degrees latitude away from the magnetic north pole.

距離地磁北極僅僅不到 10 緯度。

(Audio) NR: Really, it's not going to sound very exciting,

（音頻）娜：說真的， 這聽起來並沒那麼有趣。

because it was a day of walking with your backpack and your GPS

因為一整天你都要 背著你的背包、GPS、

and notebook and just picking up anything that might be a fossil.

筆記本，一直長途跋涉， 去撿任何看起來可能是化石的東西。

LN: And at some point, she noticed something.

拉：就在某一刻， 她發現了一些東西。

(Audio) NR: Rusty, kind of rust-colored,

（音頻）娜：它近乎鐵鏽色，

about the size of the palm of my hand.

大概像我手掌一樣大小。

It was just lying on the surface.

它就躺在地面上。

LN: And at first she thought it was just a splinter of wood,

拉：最初她以為這是 一小塊碎木頭而已。

because that's the sort of thing people had found

因為之前人們每次在法爾斯葉床

at the Fyles Leaf Bed before -- prehistoric plant parts.

找到的都是這種東西 ——史前植物的一部份。

But that night, back at camp ...

但是那一夜，回到帳篷之後，

(Audio) NR: ... I get out the hand lens,

（音頻）娜：我拿出放大鏡，

I'm looking a little bit more closely and realizing

我仔細地觀察，然後突然發現，

it doesn't quite look like this has tree rings.

它看起來好像沒有年輪啊。

Maybe it's a preservation thing,

這可能是由於保存的問題，

but it looks really like ...

但是它看起來真的像是...

bone.

骨頭。

LN: Huh. So over the next four years,

拉：所以在接下來的四年裡，

she went to that spot over and over,

她一次一次地回到那裡，

and eventually collected 30 fragments of that exact same bone,

最終收集到了 30 塊碎片， 都來自同一塊骨頭。

most of them really tiny.

大多數都很小，

(Audio) NR: It's not a whole lot. It fits in a small Ziploc bag.

（音頻）娜：其實不算很多， 一個小密封袋就能裝得下。

LN: And she tried to piece them together like a jigsaw puzzle.

拉：然後她嘗試像拼拼圖一樣， 把碎片都拼在一起。

But it was challenging.

這非常具有挑戰性。

(Audio) NR: It's broken up into so many little tiny pieces,

（音頻）娜：它碎成太多片了，

I'm trying to use sand and putty, and it's not looking good.

我們試圖用沙土和塑鋼土來復原， 但是效果並不是很好。

So finally, we used a 3D surface scanner.

所以最後，我們用了一個 3D 表面掃描儀。

LN: Ooh! NR: Yeah, right?

拉：噢！ 娜：沒錯！很棒吧？

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

LN: It turns out it was way easier to do it virtually.

拉：事實證明 用虛擬的方式更簡單啊。

(Audio) NR: It's kind of magical when it all fits together.

（音頻）娜：當它們全部拼在 一起的時候，感覺就像魔法一樣！

LN: How certain were you that you had it right,

拉：你怎麼確定你拼得是對的？

that you had put it together in the right way?

怎麼確定是用正確的方式 把它們拼起來的？

Was there a potential that you'd put it together a different way

會不會有可能 當你換一種方式拼的時候，

and have, like, a parakeet or something?

然後得到一個，嗯，像是長尾鸚鵡 或什麽其他的東西？

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

(Audio) NR: (Laughs) Um, no. No, we got this.

（音頻）娜：（大笑） 呃不會，我們肯定是拼對了。

LN: What she had, she discovered, was a tibia, a leg bone,

拉：她發現她拼出來的， 是一根脛骨，也就是一根腿骨。

and specifically, one that belonged to a cloven-hoofed mammal,

更具體一點說，這是一根 偶蹄類哺乳動物的脛骨。

so something like a cow or a sheep.

像是牛、羊之類的動物。

But it couldn't have been either of those.

但是它不可能是牛或羊的。

It was just too big.

它實在是太大了。

(Audio) NR: The size of this thing, it was huge. It's a really big animal.

（音頻）娜：這個東西的尺寸 確實很大，這是個大型動物。

LN: So what animal could it be?

拉：所以這可能是什麽動物呢？

Having hit a wall, she showed one of the fragments

她遇到了瓶頸。 她把其中一小片碎片

to some colleagues of hers in Colorado,

拿給了科羅拉多州的一些同事看，

and they had an idea.

他們產生了一個想法。

(Audio) NR: We took a saw, and we nicked just the edge of it,

（音頻）娜：我們用一把小鋸子， 在碎片邊緣切了個小切口，

and there was this really interesting smell that comes from it.

它產生了一種引起我們興趣的氣味。

LN: It smelled kind of like singed flesh.

拉：它聞起來像是燒焦了的肉。

It was a smell that Natalia recognized

娜塔莉亞分辨出了這種氣味。

from cutting up skulls in her gross anatomy lab:

她在噁心的大體解剖實驗室 切割骨頭的時候聞到過：

collagen.

膠原蛋白。

Collagen is what gives structure to our bones.

膠原蛋白是構成我們 骨頭結構的物質。

And usually, after so many years,

通常，在很多年後，

it breaks down.

它會自然分解。

But in this case, the Arctic had acted like a natural freezer and preserved it.

但是這一次，北極圈就像是一個 天然的冷凍箱將它保存了下來。

Then a year or two later, Natalia was at a conference in Bristol,

一兩年後，娜塔莉亞 去布里斯托參加一個研討會，

and she saw that a colleague of hers named Mike Buckley

她遇到一個同行，叫麥克·巴克利。

was demoing this new process that he called "collagen fingerprinting."

他正在演示一種新技術， 他稱之為「膠原蛋白指紋技術」。

It turns out that different species have slightly different structures

事實上，不同物種的膠原蛋白

of collagen,

在結構上是有著微小差異的。

so if you get a collagen profile of an unknown bone,

所以如果你有一塊未知骨頭的 膠原蛋白分析圖，

you can compare it to those of known species,

你可以將它與已知物種的 膠原蛋白進行比對。

and, who knows, maybe you get a match.

也許，誰知道呢， 有可能就配對成功了。

So she shipped him one of the fragments,

然後她就給麥克寄了一塊碎片，

FedEx.

用聯邦快遞。

(Audio) NR: Yeah, you want to track it. It's kind of important.

（音頻）娜：對啊，你想追蹤貨件 到了哪啊，這很重要的。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

LN: And he processed it,

拉：然後他處理了樣本，

and compared it to 37 known and modern-day mammal species.

將它與 37 種已知現代哺乳動物 物種進行比對，

And he found a match.

然後他配對成功了。

It turns out that the 3.5 million-year-old bone

實驗顯示， 娜塔莉亞在北極圈裡

that Natalia had dug out of the High Arctic

發現的這塊 350 萬歲的骨頭

belonged to ...

屬於...

a camel.

一匹駱駝。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

(Audio) NR: And I'm thinking, what? That's amazing -- if it's true.

（音頻）娜：我想，什麽？ 如果這是真的，那就太神奇了！

LN: So they tested a bunch of the fragments,

拉：所以她們測試了一大堆碎片，

and they got the same result for each one.

每一塊都得到了相同的結果。

However, based on the size of the bone that they found,

然而，根據她們發現的 那塊骨頭的尺寸，

it meant that this camel was 30 percent larger than modern-day camels.

這個駱駝比現代駱駝大概大 30%。

So this camel would have been about nine feet tall,

所以這個駱駝大概有 9 英尺高，

weighed around a ton.

大概 1 噸重。

(Audience reacts)

（觀眾驚呼）

Yeah.

是的。

Natalia had found a Giant Arctic camel.

娜塔莉亞發現了一種巨型北極駱駝。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

Now, when you hear the word "camel,"

現在，當你聽到 「駱駝」一詞的時候，

what may come to mind is one of these,

腦海裡出現的可能是這種：

the Bactrian camel of East and Central Asia.

東亞或者中亞地區的雙峰駱駝，

But chances are the postcard image you have in your brain

但很有可能你腦海裡出現的圖片

is one of these, the dromedary,

其實是這種，單峰駱駝。

quintessential desert creature --

典型的沙漠動物——

hangs out in sandy, hot places like the Middle East and the Sahara,

常常出現在炎熱的沙漠地帶， 像是中東或者撒哈拉地區，

has a big old hump on its back

背上有一個巨大的駝峰。

for storing water for those long desert treks,

用來為沙漠中的長途跋涉儲存水分；

has big, broad feet to help it tromp over sand dunes.

有著寬大的腳掌幫助牠們踏過沙丘，

So how on earth would one of these guys end up in the High Arctic?

所以這些駱駝中的一頭 到底是如何跑到北極圈呢？

Well, scientists have known for a long time, turns out,

其實科學家們早就知道，

even before Natalia's discovery,

甚至在娜塔莉亞的發現之前，

that camels are actually originally American.

駱駝其實是起源於美國。

(Music: The Star-Spangled Banner)

（音樂：《星條旗之歌》美國國歌）

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

They started here.

牠們從這起源，

For nearly 40 of the 45 million years that camels have been around,

在駱駝存在的 4500 萬年間， 大概有 4000 萬年的時間，

you could only find them in North America,

你只能在北美發現牠們。

around 20 different species, maybe more.

大概 20 種不同的物種， 或許更多。

(Audio) LN: If I put them all in a lineup, would they look different?

拉：如果讓牠們站一排， 看起來會有區別嗎？

NR: Yeah, you're going to have different body sizes.

（音頻）娜：會啊， 牠們的體積差別很大。

You'll have some with really long necks,

有些的脖子會特別長。

so they're actually functionally like giraffes.

所以牠們實際上 從功能來說更像是長頸鹿。

LN: Some had snouts, like crocodiles.

拉：有些有鼻子，像鱷魚一樣。

(Audio) NR: The really primitive, early ones would have been really small,

（音頻）娜：那些非常原始的 早期駱駝可能非常小；

almost like rabbits.

幾乎是一隻兔子的大小。

LN: What? Rabbit-sized camels?

拉：什麽？兔子大小的駱駝？

(Audio) NR: The earliest ones.

（音頻）娜：最早的那些是。

So those ones you probably would not recognize.

所以那些駱駝你可能都認不出來。

LN: Oh my God, I want a pet rabbit-camel.

拉：天哪！ 我好想要隻「兔駱駝」寵物啊！

(Audio) NR: I know, wouldn't that be great?

（音頻）娜：我知道， 聽起來很棒不是嗎？

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

LN: And then about three to seven million years ago,

拉：然後大約 300 萬至 700 萬年前，

one branch of camels went down to South America,

駱駝的一個分支 向南遷徙到了南美洲。

where they became llamas and alpacas,

在那裡牠們進化成了美洲駝和羊駝。

and another branch crossed over the Bering Land Bridge

另外一個分支跨過了白令陸橋，

into Asia and Africa.

來到亞洲和非洲。

And then around the end of the last ice age,

然後在上一次冰河紀末，

North American camels went extinct.

北美駱駝滅絕了。

So, scientists knew all of that already,

所以科學家早就知道了這些，

but it still doesn't fully explain how Natalia found one so far north.

但是這並不能完全解釋娜塔莉亞 是怎麼在那麼北的地方發現駱駝的。

Like, this is, temperature-wise, the polar opposite of the Sahara.

這裡從溫度的角度來說， 簡直就是撒哈拉的反義詞。

Now to be fair,

平心而論，

three and a half million years ago,

350 萬年前，

it was on average 22 degrees Celsius warmer than it is now.

平均溫度比現在大約 高攝氏 22 度。

So it would have been boreal forest,

所以那裡可以算是一個寒帶森林，

so more like the Yukon or Siberia today.

就像如今的育空或西伯利亞一樣。

But still, like, they would have six-month-long winters

但是那兒仍有六個月長的冬季。

where the ponds would freeze over.

池塘凍結成冰，

You'd have blizzards.

暴風雪肆虐，

You'd have 24 hours a day of straight darkness.

以及一天 24 小時的永夜；

Like, how ... How?

那麼...到底是怎麼回事？

How is it that one of these Saharan superstars

這些撒哈拉沙漠的超級巨星

could ever have survived those arctic conditions?

是怎麼在這種極地條件下存活的？

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

Natalia and her colleagues think they have an answer.

娜塔莉亞和她的同事認為 她們找到了答案。

And it's kind of brilliant.

相當絕妙，

What if the very features that we imagine make the camel so well-suited

假如駱駝的這些特性 並不如我們所想，

to places like the Sahara,

是爲了適應撒哈拉沙漠 那樣的環境而產生，

actually evolved to help it get through the winter?

其實是爲了幫助牠們 度過嚴寒才演化出來的呢？

What if those broad feet were meant to tromp not over sand,

如果那些寬大的腳掌 不是爲了踏過沙丘，

but over snow, like a pair of snowshoes?

而是爲了踏過雪原，像雪鞋一樣呢？

What if that hump -- which, huge news to me,

如果那些駝峰—— 對我來說，真是天大的新聞！

does not contain water, it contains fat --

不是儲存水分，而是儲存脂肪——

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

was there to help the camel get through that six-month-long winter,

來幫助駱駝度過食物稀缺的

when food was scarce?

六個月長的嚴冬呢？

And then, only later, long after it crossed over the land bridge

然後，遠在牠們跨越大陸橋之後，

did it retrofit those winter features for a hot desert environment?

才把這些冬季特性 改進成適應炎熱的沙漠環境的呢？

Like, for instance, the hump may be helpful to camels in hotter climes

就比如說，那些駝峰 在炎熱的氣候下可能非常有用，

because having all your fat in one place,

因為把脂肪都存儲在一個地方，

like a, you know, fat backpack,

像，你知道的，脂肪背包一樣，

means that you don't have to have that insulation

意味著你身體的隔熱層

all over the rest of your body.

不需要覆蓋全身。

So it helps heat dissipate easier.

這樣，散熱就變得容易了。

It's this crazy idea,

這是一個瘋狂的想法，

that what seems like proof of the camel's quintessential desert nature

這些看起來像是證明 駱駝典型的沙漠特性的證據，

could actually be proof of its High Arctic past.

實際也是證明牠們過去 生活在北極圈裡的證據。

Now, I'm not the first person to tell this story.

我並不是第一個講述這個故事的人，

Others have told it as a way to marvel at evolutionary biology

其他人早已講過 以此讚歎生物進化的神奇，

or as a keyhole into the future of climate change.

或著見微知著， 以此來看未來的氣候變化。

But I love it for a totally different reason.

但是我愛這個故事， 有一個完全不同的原因。

For me, it's a story about us,

對我來說，這是關於我們的故事，

about how we see the world

關於我們如何看待這個世界，

and about how that changes.

以及這種認知如何改變的。

So I was trained as a historian.

我的職業是歷史學家，

And I've learned that, actually, a lot of scientists are historians, too.

我發現，實際上很多科學家 同時也是歷史學家。

They make sense of the past.

他們讓過去有意義，

They tell the history of our universe, of our planet, of life on this planet.

他們講述我們的 宇宙、星球、地球生命的歷史。

And as a historian,

作為一個歷史學家，

you start with an idea in your mind of how the story goes.

你開始於腦海中的一個想法， 關於故事是如何發展的。

(Audio) NR: We make up stories and we stick with it,

（音頻）娜：我們編故事， 然後以此繼續講下去。

like the camel in the desert, right?

就像沙漠裡的駱駝，是吧？

That's a great story! It's totally adapted for that.

這是個非常棒的故事！ 駱駝非常適應沙漠環境，

Clearly, it always lived there.

很明顯，牠一直住在那裡。

LN: But at any moment, you could uncover some tiny bit of evidence.

拉：但是你隨時會 發現一些細小的線索，

You could learn some tiny thing

你會發現一些細小的東西，

that forces you to reframe everything you thought you knew.

迫使你重新定義 你自以為知道的一切。

Like, in this case, this one scientist finds this one shard

就像這個例子，一個科學家發現了

of what she thought was wood,

這一個她以為是木頭的碎片，

and because of that, science has a totally new and totally counterintuitive theory

由此，科學誕生了一個全新的、 反直覺的理論，

about why this absurd Dr. Seuss-looking creature

來解釋爲什麽這個可笑、 像極了蘇斯博士筆下的生物，

looks the way it does.

看起來像這樣。

And for me, it completely upended the way I think of the camel.

對於我來說， 它完全顛覆了我對駱駝的認知，

It went from being this ridiculously niche creature

牠從只適合這一特定環境

suited only to this one specific environment,

而存在的生物，

to being this world traveler that just happens to be in the Sahara,

變成了世界旅行家， 只是恰好出現在撒哈拉沙漠。

and could end up virtually anywhere.

並且可能到達幾乎任何地方。

(Applause)

（掌聲）

This is Azuri.

這是阿祖力。

Azuri, hi, how are you doing?

嗨，阿祖力，你好嗎？

OK, here, I've got one of these for you here.

來，我給你帶了一些吃的。

(Laughter)

（掌聲）

So Azuri is on a break from her regular gig

阿祖力剛剛完成她的特約演出，

at the Radio City Music Hall.

從紐約無線電城音樂廳來，

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

That's not even a joke.

這不是開玩笑。

Anyway --

不過——

But really, Azuri is here as a living reminder

真的，阿祖力在這裡 作為一個鮮活的例子，

that the story of our world is a dynamic one.

說明這個世界的故事是 瞬息萬變的。

It requires our willingness to readjust, to reimagine.

需要我們主動重新調整， 大膽想像。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

Right, Azuri?

對吧？阿祖力。

And, really, that we're all just one shard of bone away

真的，我們與看待世界的全新視角

from seeing the world anew.

只有一片碎骨頭的距離罷了。

Thank you very much.

非常感謝！

(Applause)

（掌聲）