男孩在阿米什國發(fā)現(xiàn)了古代猛犸象的牙齒

男孩在阿米什國發(fā)現(xiàn)了古代猛犸象的牙齒

A 12-year-old boy visiting Ohio’s Amish Country may be one of the youngest archaeologists in history.

一名12歲的男孩在參觀俄亥俄州的阿米什國家時，可能成為歷史上最年輕的考古學家之一。

Jackson Hepner was staying at The Inn at Honey Run in Millersburg, Ohio, with his family last month when he stumbled upon a rare remnant of the ice age, a woolly mammoth tooth, Fox 8 reported.

上個月，杰克遜·赫普納和家人住進俄亥俄州米爾斯堡的“蜂蜜之路”旅館，他偶然發(fā)現(xiàn)了一顆罕見的冰河時代遺跡——一顆毛茸茸的猛犸象牙齒。

“I found the tooth about ten yards upstream from the bridge we had our family pictures on,” Hepner wrote on the hotel’s blog, where a relative is hotel manager. “It was partially buried on the left side of the creek. It was completely out of the water on the creek bed.”

赫普納的一位親戚是酒店經(jīng)理，他在酒店的博客上寫道:“我發(fā)現(xiàn)這顆牙齒在離我們?nèi)液嫌暗臉蛏嫌未蠹s十碼的地方。”“它的一部分被埋在小溪的左邊。它完全露出了河床上的水。”

The find was confirmed by experts Nick Kardulias from the College of Wooster’s archaeology department, Dale Gnidovec from The Ohio State University’s Orton Geological Museum and Nigel Ashland from Ashland University’s geology department. They noted the tooth, an upper third molar, had parallel ridges, which are indicative of mammoths, whose diet required specialized teeth to grind their food, such as grass and seeds.

這一發(fā)現(xiàn)得到了伍斯特學院考古系專家尼克·卡杜利亞斯、俄亥俄州立大學奧爾頓地質(zhì)博物館專家戴爾·格尼多維奇和阿什蘭大學地質(zhì)系專家奈杰爾·阿什蘭的證實。他們注意到，這顆牙齒是上第三臼齒，有平行的齒脊，這表明猛犸象的飲食需要專門的牙齒來磨碎食物，比如草和種子。

Between 110,000 and 12,000 years ago, woolly mammoths inhabited the area now called Ohio (though they ultimately died out in Siberia about 4,000 years ago). According to Gnidovec, mammoths came over from Asia two million years ago, but skeletons older than 13,000 years are difficult to find due to “glacial advances” over the state.

11萬至12萬年前，長毛猛犸象居住在現(xiàn)在的俄亥俄州((盡管它們最終在大約4000年前在西伯利亞滅絕)。據(jù)Gnidovec稱，猛犸象是200萬年前從亞洲遷徙而來的，但由于該州的“冰川推進”，超過1.3萬年前的骨骼很難找到。

Enlarge Image“During the Ice Age there were two kinds of ‘elephants’ living in Ohio — mammoths and mastodons,” Gnidovec told Newsweek. “Mastodons are much more common … [and] mammoths much more rare. That is because Ice Age Ohio had much more forested areas, which the mastodons lived in, that it did open grasslands preferred by the mammoths.”

放大圖片“在冰河時期，俄亥俄州有兩種‘大象’——猛犸象和乳齒象，”格尼多維奇告訴《新聞周刊》。“乳齒象更常見……(而且)猛犸象更罕見。這是因為冰河時期俄亥俄州有更多的森林地區(qū)，乳齒象生活在那里，它確實有猛犸象喜歡的開闊草原。”

The Inn seems to be thrilled with their involvement in this discovery and Ohio’s ancient history.

酒店似乎對他們參與這項發(fā)現(xiàn)和俄亥俄州的古代歷史感到興奮。

“What is now lush greenery, flowing waters, and hundreds of beautiful species was once an enormous glacial sheet that would slowly (and literally) shape Ohio’s future,” they wrote on their blog. “The unearthing of the Mammoth tooth shows that there are definite pieces of ancient history hidden around us, connecting us to an interesting past.”

他們在博客中寫道:“現(xiàn)在繁茂的植被、流動的海水和數(shù)百種美麗的物種，曾經(jīng)是一塊巨大的冰川，將慢慢地(實際上)塑造俄亥俄州的未來。”“猛犸象牙齒的出土表明，我們周圍確實隱藏著古代歷史的碎片，將我們與一個有趣的過去聯(lián)系在一起。”

Now that his discovery has been legitimized, Hepner is eager to get his hand on his buried treasure once again.

現(xiàn)在他的發(fā)現(xiàn)已經(jīng)合法化了，赫普納渴望再次得到他埋藏的寶藏。

“I would like to have my tooth back in my hands as soon as possible,” he wrote. “I want to show my friends.”

“我希望我的牙齒能盡快回到我的手中，”他寫道。“我想讓我的朋友們看看。”