Researchers from the University of Osaka claimed that a genetically-engineered mouse that tweets like a bird has been produced, and they hope this discovery can help find how human language evolved over history。

　　日本大阪大学的科学家日前宣称，他们已培育出了一只能像小鸟般鸣叫的老鼠，并希望借此了解人类语言在历史长河中的进化过程。

　　As part of the "Evolved Mouse Project," which was carried out to find how genetic mutations drive evolutions, researchers cross-bred the mutation prone mice for generations and checked the newborn mice one at a time. Finally one day they came across a mouse that was singing just like a bird。

　　“进化鼠项目”旨在探索基因突变推动进化的机制，作为该项目的一部分，研究人员对具有基因变异倾向的老鼠进行数代杂交，并逐个检查新生鼠。终于有一天发现一只老鼠能像鸟一样鸣叫。

　　In addition to the singing rodent, there are also a mouse with short limbs and one with a tail like of a dachshund among the 100 mutant mice。

　　此外，在他们培育的100只老鼠中，还有一只拥有短肢，而另外一只则长有和达克斯狗一样的尾巴。

　　Researchers now hope their tweeting mice will lend insight on how human language evolved over history. Mice, after all, are much closer to humans in terms of biology and brain, and by seeing how they chirp in the company of other mice and when placed in certain situations, they might learn how human linguistics came to be as well as how they were shared among groups。

　　如今研究人员希望他们的“唱歌”老鼠可以提供有关人类语言进化的线索。毕竟老鼠和人类在生物学以及大脑构成方面更为接近，通过观察老鼠群体中如何产生会唱歌的老鼠，并在特殊情况下进行研究，科学家们有可能发现人类语言的起源，以及语言如何在群体内传播。