donkey中等

For thousands of years, donkeys have been critical for propelling human civilizations forward.

数千年来，驴对推动人类文明向前发展一直至关重要。

Now, researchers have used genomes of over 200 donkeys to trace their domestication back to a single event around 7,000 years ago in East Africa — about 3,000 years before humans tamed horses.

如今，研究人员利用200多头驴的基因组，将驴的驯化追溯到大约7000年前发生在东非的一次单一事件——比人类驯服马早了约3000年。

The researchers examined 207 genomes from modern donkeys living in 31 countries across the globe.

研究人员检测了生活在全球31个国家的现代驴的207个基因组。

They also looked at genomes from 15 wild equids and 31 earlier donkeys that lived between about 4,000 and 100 years ago.

他们还研究了15种野生马科动物以及31头生活在约4000年前到100年前之间的早期驴的基因组。

“Donkeys are champions when it comes to carrying stuff and are good at going at deserts,” co-author Ludovic Orlando, an evolutionary biologist at Paul Sabin University in France, tells the publication.

“说到驮运东西，驴是佼佼者，而且它们擅长在沙漠中行走，”论文合著者、法国保罗·萨巴蒂埃大学的进化生物学家卢多维克·奥兰多对该刊物表示。

Prehistoric humans may have tamed donkeys to help navigate the expanding Sahara.

史前人类可能是为了帮助自己穿越不断扩张的撒哈拉沙漠而驯服了驴。