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Scientists believe a species of monkeys used a raft to cross 160 kilometers of ocean from South to North America about 21 million years ago.
科学家认为，大约2100万年前，一种猴子使用筏子穿越了160公里海洋从南美来到北美。
The monkeys are similar to today's capuchins, small monkeys that often perform with humans at the circus.
这种猴子类似于今天经常在马戏团与人类一起表演的卷尾猴。
Scientists found seven monkey teeth that became fossils in an area near the Panama Canal. The teeth were more than five million years old. Scientists think that is when the continents of North and South America came together.
科学家在巴拿马运河附近区域发现了七颗猴子牙齿化石。这些牙齿的历史都超过了500万年。科学家认为在500万年前的这个时间北美和南美大陆连在了一起。
They said the teeth belonged to a species they call Panamacebus transitus. When the species lived, South America was not in contact with other continents.
他们说，这些牙齿属于一种被他们称之为Panamacebus transitus的物种。当这一物种在此生活时，南美大陆尚未与其它大陆接壤。
For that reason, South America has a strange variety of mammals. The animals grew and changed in interesting ways because they were separated from other animals.
出于这种原因，南美有各种奇怪的哺乳动物。这些动物渐渐长大并且有意思的改变了，因为它们被和其它动物分隔开。
Jonathan Bloch works at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the University of Florida campus. He said that Panama was farther south than any other place in North America. He said the monkeys might have swum, but probably rode on some kind of a raft.
乔纳森·布洛赫（Jonathan Bloch）就职于佛罗里达州大学校园内的佛罗里达自燃历史博物馆。他说，巴拿马比北美任何地方都更靠近南方。他说，猴子也许是游泳，但很可能是搭乘了某种筏子。
Surprising discovery
惊人的发现
Bloch believes these monkeys were the only mammals that were able to cross the waterway from South America to reach present-day Panama.
布洛赫认为，这些猴子是唯一能够从南美穿越水路抵达如今的巴拿马的哺乳动物。
The strip of land, known as the Isthmus of Panama, was formed about 3.5 million years ago. That land bridge permitted large numbers of animals to begin walking between the continents in one of the biggest mixing of species on record.
巴拿马地峡形成于大约350万年前。这一大陆桥让大量动物在有史以来最大规模的物种混合中开始在大陆之间游走。
Bloch said learning that monkeys lived in North America that long ago was a surprising discovery. For a long time, scientists thought that monkeys simply did not exist there.
布洛赫表示，了解到猴子很久以前在北美生活是一项惊人的发现。长期以来科学家都认为猴子在北美根本不存在。
It would be like learning that Australia's kangaroos and koalas live in the wilds of Asia today.
这就像是了解到澳大利亚的袋鼠和考拉生活在今天亚洲的荒野。
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