科学美国人60秒 SSS 史前海洋动物在大餐后死去

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是克里斯托弗·因塔格里塔。

Hundreds of millions of years ago, reptilian¹ predators³ called ichthyosaurs swam the seas.

亿万年前，名为“鱼龙”的爬行动物捕食者在海洋中游动。

Their fossils look fearsome. But paleobiologist Ryosuke Motani of U.C. Davis says they may have looked more like friendly dolphins.

它们的化石看起来很可怕。但美国戴维斯大学的古生物学专家藻谷亮介表示，它们看起来可能更像友好的海豚。

"Maybe in life ichthyosaurs would have been cute—at least the smaller ones."

“也许在生活中，鱼龙会很可爱——至少体型较小的是如此。”

Motani's team studied one such specimen⁴ found in southwest China. It was 240 million years old—15 feet long.

藻谷亮介的团队研究了在中国西南部发现的鱼龙化石。这有2.4亿年历史，15英尺长。

But it seemed to have some extra bones in it—

但它体内似乎有一些多余的骨头，

which Motani's team determined⁵ to be the remains⁶ of a 13-foot-long thalattosaur, or "sea lizard⁷," the ichthyosaur had swallowed.

藻谷亮介的团队确定那是鱼龙吞下的、13英尺长的海龙或“海蜥蜴”的遗骸。

And, spoiler alert, the only reason they were able to see this animal in the belly⁸ of the ichthyosaur is that this gigantic meal never got digested.

剧透一下，他们能在鱼龙腹部看见这种动物的唯一原因是，这顿大餐从未被消化。

The ichthyosaur died soon after swallowing it.

鱼龙吞下它后不久就死了。

Motani was careful to say they're not sure exactly why the ichthyosaur perished. But the specimen has a broken neck.

藻谷亮介谨慎地表示，他们不确定鱼龙死亡的确切原因。但这个标本的颈部骨折了。

So he gave a speculative⁹ play-by-play. Perhaps, he says, the ichthyosaur snapped at the sea lizard, but the lizard fought back.

因此他给出了推测性解释。他说，也许鱼龙咬住了海蜥蜴，但蜥蜴反击了。

"And this fight between the two was fierce, probably."

“它们俩之间的战斗可能很激烈。”

So the ichthyosaur fought to subdue¹⁰ its prey¹¹, damaging its neck in the process.

因此，鱼龙奋力制服自已的猎物，在这个过程中损伤了脖子。

Then it had to dislodge the prey's bony head and tail from its juicy midsection.

之后，鱼龙不得不将猎物多骨的头部和巴马从多汁液的中段卸掉。

"Now the predator² had to do it through jerking and twisting like crocodiles do."

“现在捕食者不得不像鳄鱼一样，通过猛拉和扭转扯掉它们。”

Also bad for the neck. And finally, the ichthyosaur had to swallow the animal—perhaps using inertia¹² or gravity to shove the prey down its gullet.

这对脖子也不利。最后，鱼龙必须吞掉这个动物，可能利用了惯性或重力将猎物推入食道。

"And the chances are, by the time it was ingested,

“很有可能在吞下猎物时，

maybe the neck damage had accumulated to a certain level and maybe the neck could not support the head."

鱼龙脖子的损伤已累积到一定程度，无法再支撑其头部。”

Details of that ancient battle appear in the journal iScience.

这场古代争斗的细节刊登在《iScience》上。

The reason this analysis matters is you can only infer so much about who ate who by looking at teeth.

这篇分析很重要，因为你只能通过观察牙齿来推断谁吃了谁。

This fossil offers direct evidence that these ancient beasts sometimes bit off a whole lot more than they could chew.

这些化石提供了直接的证据，证明这些古老的野兽有时咬下的东西比它们能咀嚼的要多得多。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。

1 reptilian   

adj.（像）爬行动物的；（像）爬虫的；卑躬屈节的；卑鄙的n.两栖动物；卑劣的人

参考例句：

• The chick is ugly and almost reptilian in its appearance. 这只小鸡长得很丑，看起来几乎像个爬行动物。 来自辞典例句
• Being from Orion do Zetas contain DNA from the Reptilian race? 齐塔人是从猎户座而来，DNA来自爬虫族吗？ 来自互联网

2 predator   

n.捕食其它动物的动物；捕食者

参考例句：

• The final part of this chapter was devoted to a brief summary of predator species.本章最后部分简要总结了食肉动物。
• Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard and a fearsome predator.科摩多龙是目前存在的最大蜥蜴，它是一种令人恐惧的捕食性动物。

3 predators   

n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 )；奴役他人者（尤指在财务或性关系方面）

参考例句：

• birds and their earthbound predators 鸟和地面上捕食它们的动物
• The eyes of predators are highly sensitive to the slightest movement. 捕食性动物的眼睛能感觉到最细小的动静。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 specimen   

n.样本，标本

参考例句：

• You'll need tweezers to hold up the specimen.你要用镊子来夹这标本。
• This specimen is richly variegated in colour.这件标本上有很多颜色。

5 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

6 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

7 lizard   

n.蜥蜴，壁虎

参考例句：

• A chameleon is a kind of lizard.变色龙是一种蜥蜴。
• The lizard darted out its tongue at the insect.蜥蜴伸出舌头去吃小昆虫。

8 belly   

n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛

参考例句：

• The boss has a large belly.老板大腹便便。
• His eyes are bigger than his belly.他眼馋肚饱。

9 speculative   

adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的

参考例句：

• Much of our information is speculative.我们的许多信息是带推测性的。
• The report is highly speculative and should be ignored.那个报道推测的成分很大，不应理会。

10 subdue   

vt.制服，使顺从，征服；抑制，克制

参考例句：

• She tried to subdue her anger.她尽力压制自己的怒火。
• He forced himself to subdue and overcome his fears.他强迫自己克制并战胜恐惧心理。

11 prey   

n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨

参考例句：

• Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
• The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。

12 inertia   

adj.惰性，惯性，懒惰，迟钝

参考例句：

• We had a feeling of inertia in the afternoon.下午我们感觉很懒。
• Inertia carried the plane onto the ground.飞机靠惯性着陆。