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意大利出土恐龙化石---改写当地史前记录(上)

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This is Scientific American’s 60 Second Science. I’m Emily Schwing.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列,我是艾米丽·施文。

When he was little, Alessandro Chiarenza’s grandmother used to read him bedtime stories about dinosaurs and she would always tell him the same thing.

亚历山德罗·基亚伦扎小的时候,他的祖母经常给他读关于恐龙的睡前故事,她总是给他讲同样的事情。

Oh you know, but these things were not living here.

但这些东西并不住在这里。

They were living like in America and in Asia, so not here in Italy.

他们生活在如美国和亚洲这样的地方,不会在意大利。

That bedtime story first began to change for Italian kids back in the 1990’s.

早在20世纪90年代,意大利儿童的睡前故事就开始发生变化。

So we have found plenty of dinosaur records from dinosaur fossils.

我们从恐龙化石中发现了大量的恐龙记录。

We started in the past decades to record the footprints, but then most importantly, we started finding bones and now complete skeletons of dinosaurs.

我们在过去的几十年里开始记录脚印,但最重要的是,我们开始寻找恐龙的骨骼,现在是完整的恐龙骨架。

Chiarenza, a paleontologist at the University of Vigo in Spain, is part of a team that recently uncovered nearly a dozen complete dinosaur skeletons - a first in Italy.

齐亚伦扎是西班牙维戈大学的古生物学家,他所在的团队最近发现了十几具完整的恐龙骨骼,这在意大利是第一次。

The discovery is documented in the journal Scientific Reports.

这一发现发表在《科学报告》杂志上。

And it once again upends the bedtime story, so to speak.

可以说,它又一次颠覆了睡前故事。

Usually, you don’t find multiple complete individuals altogether.

通常,你不会发现多个完整的恐龙个体。

And it’s something historically very rare.

这在历史上是非常罕见的。

Back in 1994, in Trieste, a municipality in North Eastern Italy, scientists discovered Antonio - a small hadrosaur, or duck-billed dinosaur.

早在1994年,在意大利东北部的里雅斯特市,科学家们发现了安东尼奥——一种小型鸭嘴龙,或称为鸭嘴恐龙。

The skeleton is about three and a half meters long and very well preserved.

这具骨架长约3.5米, 保存完好。

And one peculiar feature from this dinosaur stage was relatively small from the close cousins that they were inhabiting at the time in North America and Asia and dinosaurs from these exotic lands would be quite big.

这个恐龙时期的一个奇特特征是:相对于它们当时生活在北美和亚洲的近亲来说,它们的体型相对较小,而这些来自异域的恐龙在当时体型相当大。

They’re basically coexisting with the T-Rex or relatives of the T-Rex.

它们基本上与霸王龙或其亲缘物种共存。

These were like the main predators of these animals and so they were quite big.

它们主要捕食这些动物,所以它们体型非常大。

When he was discovered, scientists theorized that Antonio was a victim of something called the “island rule.”

当安东尼奥被发现时,科学家们推测他是“岛屿法则”的受害者。

The site of Antonio’s discovery—Villaggio Del Pestacore—was once part of an island that sat in the middle of a proto-Mediterranean sea, known as Tethys.

安东尼奥发现的地方——维拉吉奥·德尔·佩斯塔科——曾经是一个位于原始地中海(被称为特提斯)中央的岛屿的一部分。

In fact, this is how Antonio came to acquire his scientific name: Tethyshadros insularis.

事实上,这解释了安东尼奥如何获得他的学名:Tethyshadros insularis。

Insularis means “from an island,” according to Chiarenza.

基亚伦扎认为Insularis的意思是“来自岛屿”。

And as the old story goes, Antonia would have been a ‘dwarf’ species because of limited resources on that island.

正如古老的故事所说,由于岛上资源有限,安东尼奥可能是一种“侏儒”物种。

But this all changed when Bruno, a hadrosaur of the same species was discovered.

但这一切都在布鲁诺被发现后改变了,布鲁诺是一只同种类的鸭嘴龙。

We know that if you cut a dinosaur skeleton, you can see some structure which is more comparable or analogous to what you see in a tree ring,

我们知道,如果你切割恐龙的骨骼,你可以看到一些结构,这些结构与你在树木年轮上看到的结构更类似,

so you count them and you can see how old these animals are.

所以你数一数,就可以看到这些动物的年龄。

The bigger skeleton, Bruno, was older in age than the younger one, the skeleton of Antonio, the one that was smaller in size.

那具较大的名叫布鲁诺的骨骼,比那具较小的名叫安东尼奥的骨骼,年龄更大。

文章为可可英语翻译,未经授权请勿转载!

重点单词   查看全部解释    
victim ['viktim]

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n. 受害者,牺牲

 
species ['spi:ʃiz]

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n. (单复同)物种,种类

 
acquire [ə'kwaiə]

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vt. 获得,取得,学到

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multiple ['mʌltipl]

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adj. 许多,多种多样的
n. 倍数,并联

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rare [rɛə]

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adj. 稀罕的,稀薄的,罕见的,珍贵的
ad

 
preserved [pri'zə:vd]

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adj. 保藏的;腌制的;[美俚]喝醉的

 
skeleton ['skelitn]

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n. 骨架,纲要,骨骼,骨瘦如柴的人或动物,家丑

 
uncovered [,ʌn'kʌvəd]

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adj. 无覆盖物的;未保险的;无盖的 v. 脱帽致敬;

 
limited ['limitid]

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adj. 有限的,被限制的
动词limit的过

 
comparable ['kɔmpərəbl]

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adj. 可比较的,比得上的

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