我们都知道，人类是从猿猴进化而来的，那么猿猴又是从什么进化而来的呢？数百年来，科学家也一直在探索这个命题。近日，英国古生物学家从侏罗纪海岸的古老岩层中发现了远古生物的牙齿，经鉴定，这些牙齿来自人类的祖先——白垩纪早期哺乳动物，而且这种动物很有可能是住在地洞里的小老鼠。

As ancestors go, it might not look particularly distinguished, but this toothy rat-like creature is the forefather of us all 考古发现，上图这种长相和老鼠类似的啮齿动物是人类的祖先，虽然这位祖先的外貌不是很出众。近日，朴茨茅斯大学的古生物学者们在多赛特郡的侏罗纪海岸发现了这种生活在1 这种远古动物最终会进化为人类，而且在演变过程中，还会进化成蓝鲸和鼩鼱等多种不同生物。

The new species has been named ‘Durlstotherim newmani’, after keen amateur paleontologist Charlie Newman, 51, the landlord of the Square and Compass in Worth Matravers who founded his own fossil museum in the pub, and helped scientists collect the new specimens 纽曼曾在2015年用自己农场里的35吨木材建造了一个12英尺高的“巨石阵”，并因此登上了新闻头条，不过后来波倍克区议会命他将其拆除。

The new species were identified from just a handful of fossilised teeth which were found by Portsmouth University undergraduate Grant Smith earlier this year, and identified by Dr Steve Sweetman, a research fellow at the university 斯威特曼博士说：“格兰特当时正在筛选从多赛特海岸上收集到的最早的白垩纪小块岩石样本，希望能找到一些有趣的遗骸用于他的本科论文项目。”

“Quite unexpectedly he found not one but two quite remarkable teeth of a type never before seen from rocks of this age “出乎意料的是，他找到了不止一块，而是两块非常特别的牙齿，这种牙齿类型从未在这个年代的岩石中见过。他请我过去看一下，想听听我的意见，结果我才看了一眼就惊呆了。”

“The teeth are of a type so highly evolved that I realised straight away I was looking at remains of Early Cretaceous mammals that more closely resembled those that lived during the latest Cretaceous - some 60 million years later in geological history He helped us collect samples and was otherwise very helpful and hospitable A second species was also identified and named after scientist, Paul Ensom 斯威特曼博士认为这种哺乳动物是一种毛绒绒的小动物，极有可能在夜间活动。第二个标本也已经确认并以科学家保罗?恩索姆的名字命名。这些动物很可能居住在地洞中，以昆虫或植物为食。

“The teeth are of a highly advanced type that can pierce, cut and crush food,” added Dr Sweetman No mean feat when you’re sharing your habitat with predatory dinosaurs 这些牙齿是在斯沃尼奇附近的悬崖上的岩石中找到的。在斯沃尼奇一带曾发现数千块重要化石。

Dave Martill, Professor of Palaeobiology, at Portsmouth was originally shown the teeth by Mr Smith, and confirmed they were mammalian, but was puzzled as to what they were doing in such an old layer of rock Teeth as well-evolved as Durlstotherim newmani, have previously only been found in rock layers from, the late Cretaceous, between 86 and 66 million years ago Steve made the connection immediately” “侏罗纪海岸总是不断地揭开新的秘密，我期待类似的发现会继续在我们眼前涌现。”

Dr Sweetman said the finds rewrite the history of mammal evolution 他说：“在古生物学领域中，学者们对于在中国发现的一个大约有1 That being the case, our 145 million year old teeth are undoubtedly the earliest yet known from the line of mammals that lead to our own species45亿年历史的牙齿主人无疑是已知最早的人类的哺乳动物祖先。”

英文来源：每日电讯报翻译&编辑：丹妮