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We love our dogs, and they love us.
我們都喜歡汪星人，而它們也愛著我們。
But it hasn’t always been that way.
但是它們以前可并非如此友善。
Dogs evolved from wolves. But when—and where?
狗是從狼進化而來，但是發(fā)生在何時何地？
Some have argued that humans domesticated wolves into dogs in Asia or the Middle East about 12,000 years ago, as the rise of agriculture allowed us to settle down.
據(jù)說在大約12000年以前，隨著農(nóng)業(yè)興起使得人類可以穩(wěn)定的在某一地區(qū)安頓下來，所以亞洲或者中東地區(qū)的古人類馴養(yǎng)狼群成為狗群。
But the bones of ancient dogs, dug up from caves in Belgium and Siberia, tell a different story.
但在比利時和西伯利亞挖掘出的古代狗狗們的骨頭卻講述著截然不同的故事。
A team of geneticists extracted DNA from those bones, as well as from 49 wolves and from 77 modern dogs of various breeds.
一組遺傳學家們提取出這些骨頭中的DNA遺傳物質(zhì)，并且和49只狼，77只現(xiàn)代犬類進行比對，
By comparing the DNA from dogs and their ancestors, the scientists were able to reconstruct a family tree.
通過對比古代狗祖先和現(xiàn)代狗后代的遺傳信息，科學家們就能夠重新構(gòu)建它們的家族進化史。
The work appears in the journal Science.
該研究已經(jīng)在《科學》雜志上發(fā)表。
The geneticists conclude that dogs were probably domesticated in Europe, most likely between 19,000 and 30,000 years ago, when we humans were still hunting and gathering—and leaving carcasses and trash piles behind.
遺傳學家們表示狗類很有可能是在歐洲被馴化的，大約是在距今19000到30000年前，但那時我們?nèi)祟惾匀灰圆东C和群居而生—并且遷徙后便將動物尸體以及其它垃圾棄之不顧。
Those wolves that overcame their natural fear of people might have had easy meals.
而克服了懼怕人類天性的這些狼群或許能夠更容易找到食物。
And now we have a better idea of just who let the dogs in.
而現(xiàn)在我們對狗類的起源有更好的解釋。
