Humans evolved from apes. This is what we learned in biology class. But what came before apes？ Chinese scientists have discovered fossils that could enrich the evolutionary story of how humans evolved from fish.

According to four articles published in the journal Nature in late September last year， Chinese researchers found fish fossils that provide the “missing link” about the origin of the jaw， a key trait that 99.8 percent of vertebrate species have.

Zhu Min， a lead researcher of the studies from the Chinese Academy of Sciences， told China Daily that the findings drew a large amount of interest in the science world due to the importance of jaws in animal evolution.

我們在生物課上學過，人類是從類人猿進化而來的，但是在類人猿之前呢？中國科學家發(fā)現(xiàn)一批化石，完善了人類如何從魚類演化而來的進化故事。

根據(jù)2022年9月下旬發(fā)表于《自然》雜志的四篇文章，中國研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)的古魚化石填補了有頜類起源的“缺失環(huán)節(jié)”，地球上現(xiàn)存99.8%的脊椎動物都具有頜骨這一關(guān)鍵特征。

據(jù)《中國日報》報道，領(lǐng)銜該研究的中國科學院朱敏院士表示，有頜類在動物演化史中至關(guān)重要，因此這些發(fā)現(xiàn)在科學界引發(fā)了極大興趣。

However， the rise of the jaw had been a mystery due to a lack of sufficient fossil evidence to support that jawed vertebrates lived 450 million years ago.

The latest findings made by Zhus team presented a set of five surprisingly well-preserved fish fossils that included three whole-bodied fish， helping scientists paint a more accurate evolutionary picture of the origin of the jaw. The fish fossils were discovered at two sites in Chongqing and Guizhou， whose strata date back to the Silurian Period that began around 440 million years ago.

These fossils show that jawed fish were already thriving in the worlds ancient oceans at that time. Later on， more diverse and larger jawed fish evolved and began to spread around the world， paving the way for some fish to eventually go on land and evolve into other animals—including humans.

“These fossils provide an unprecedented opportunity to peek into the ‘dawn of fish and help scientists trace many human body structures back to these ancient fish， thus filling some key gaps in the evolutionary history of how fish evolved into humans，” Zhu said.

然而，有頜類的崛起一度籠罩在迷霧中，由于化石實證不夠充分，科學家無法證明4.5億年前已經(jīng)出現(xiàn)有頜脊椎動物。

朱敏院士團隊的最新研究成果展示了五種保存十分完好的古魚化石，其中包括三種完整保存的魚類，幫助科學家描繪出了更準確的有頜類起源進化圖。這些古魚化石是在重慶、貴州等地距今約4.4億年的志留紀早期地層中發(fā)現(xiàn)的。

這些化石表明，有頜類各大類群當時已經(jīng)在那片遠古時期的海洋中繁衍生息。后來，更多樣、更大型的有頜類屬種出現(xiàn)并開始擴散到全球，開啟了魚類登陸，并最終演化成為其他動物——包括人類的進程。

朱敏院士說：“這些化石為我們一窺‘魚類的黎明提供了前所未有的機會，還幫助科學家將很多與人類相關(guān)的解剖學結(jié)構(gòu)追溯到這些遠古魚類，填補了‘從魚到人演化史上的一些關(guān)鍵空白?！?/p>

Word Bank

fossil /'f?sl/ n. 化石

sufficient /s?'f??nt/ adj. 足夠的；充足的

Allow sufficient time to get there.