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Working with a team of colleagues, the researchers obtained DNA from 12 woolly-rhinoceros bones collected from permafrost in Siberia,
研究人員和同事們從西伯利亞多年凍土中采集到的12根披毛犀骨頭中提取到了DNA，
dating from the beginning of the Late Pleistocene, about 130,000 years ago, until the animals were on the verge of extinction.
年代區間約從13萬年前的晚更新世開始，到這些動物瀕臨滅絕為止。
Extra DNA was recovered from one sample of rhino hair and one piece of tissue found in the stomach of a frozen wolf that had been preserved by the cold.
另外的DNA來自于一根犀牛毛發樣本，以及在一只凍狼胃部發現的一塊組織，這只狼被低溫保存了下來。
Analysing the genetic diversity of the samples allowed the researchers to make a rough calculation of the size of the woolly-rhino population over time.
分析這些樣本的基因多樣性能夠讓研究人員粗濾估算各時期披毛犀的數量。
Rather than declining as humans arrived, the population remained stable from 29,000 years ago until 18,500 years ago,
隨著人類的到來，它們的數量沒有減少，而是從2.9萬年前開始就保持穩定，直到1.85萬年前，
just a few thousand years before the species went extinct.
此時距離該物種滅絕僅幾千年。
That suggests that, far from being hunted to extinction, the rhinos co-existed stably with humans for around 10,000 years.
這表明，這種犀牛并不是被獵殺致滅絕的，約一萬多年以來，它們一直都和人類穩定地共存。
Perhaps the people who encountered the beasts found them unpalatable.
大概遇到這種野獸的人發現它們超級難吃。
Or perhaps the rhinos were simply too dangerous to hunt with their simple weapons.
又或者只是因為這種犀牛太過危險，人類簡單的武器無法捕獲它們。
(They were the size of the modern white rhino, which is not an animal that takes kindly to being stabbed with spears.)
（它們的體型和現代白犀牛的差不多，而白犀牛可不是那種喜歡被矛穿刺的動物。）
The researchers' case is not quite conclusive.
研究人員的結論還不是很明確。
It is possible that some sort of technological advance eventually gave ancient humans the ability to hunt rhinos safely,
或許某種繼續進步最終賦予了古代人類安全捕獲犀牛的能力，
and that extinction followed after that breakthrough.
并且在這次突破之后，它們就滅絕了。
On the other hand, the animals' decline lines up suggestively with a rapid bout of global warming that began around 14,700 years ago.
另一方面，動物數量的減少與始于大約1.47萬年前的全球變暖的迅速爆發有明顯的聯系。
The researchers argue that this was the more likely cause of the animal's disappearance. This time, it seems, it was Mother Nature whodunnit.
研究人員表示，這更有可能是這種動物消失的原因。這一次，似乎是大自然母親下的手。
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