科学美国人60秒 动物王国是一个喧闹的地方

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...choruses of frogs...

蛙声……

...and lots of lesser¹ known sounds, like the ray gun–like sounds of baby alligators³ hatching and calling for Mom.

……还有许多鲜为人知的声音，比如小短吻鳄被孵化和呼唤妈妈时发出的射线枪般的声音。

There's lots of videos of them doing this on YouTube if you're curious.

如果你感到好奇，YouTube网站上有许多这类视频。

"When I was a kid growing up, I had a pet alligator². It vocalized a lot."

“我小时候养过短吻鳄当宠物，它总是叫。”

John Wiens, an evolutionary⁴ ecologist at the University of Arizona.

亚利桑那大学的进化生态学家约翰·维恩斯说到。

"So I had this baby alligator when I was a teenager. Sometimes I could hear 'Urh urh urh urh.'

And when they grow up, they do bellows⁵ and slaps and all sorts of sounds."

“我是在十几岁的时候养的那只小短吻鳄。有时我能听到‘呃呃呃’的声音。它们在成长过程中会发出吼叫和‘啪啪'等各种声音。”

Wiens and his collaborator⁶ Zhuo Chen wondered: Why did animals start vocalizing in the first place? Well, one hypothesis was that the ability originated in nocturnal animals—cause, you know, sound works a lot better than colors or horns or other visual cues when you can't see.

Wiens and Chen built an evolutionary tree of nearly 1.800 vertebrate species and mapped onto it information on whether each lived by day or night and whether they made sound.

维恩斯及其合作者卓晨想知道：动物最初发出叫声的原因是什么?一种假设认为，这种能力源于夜间行动物，因为在看不见的情况下，声音比颜色、角或其他视觉提示的效果要好得多。

维恩斯和Chen为近1800种脊椎动物建立了进化树，并标注了每种动物是日行还是夜行，以及是否发声的信息。

"So one of the things we did then was to do a statistical⁷ correlation⁸ between the evolution of acoustic⁹ communication and whether they were active by day or by night. And we found a very strong relationship. Those that are active at night tend to evolve acoustic communication."

“因此，我们之后所做的，就是在声通讯进化与它们是日间活跃还是夜间活跃这二者之间做统计相关性。我们发现二者间存在非常紧密的关系。在夜间活动的动物往往会进化出声通讯。”

Suggesting that the nocturnal notion was more than just a shot in the dark.

这表明夜行概念不仅仅是在黑暗中活动。

The findings are in the journal Nature Communications.

这项研究发表在《自然·通讯》期刊上。

This ability to vocalize likely arose independently, multiple times, hundreds of millions of years ago—in frogs, mammals, geckos, and birds and crocodilians. And though vocalization might have originated with nocturnal animals, some night dwellers¹⁰ seem to have lost the ability—like pangolins—while others, which evolved to be active by day, retained it—like, of course, you and me.

这种发声能力很可能在数亿年前独立且多次在青蛙、哺乳动物、壁虎、鸟类和鳄鱼身上产生。虽然最早发声的可能是夜行动物，但穿山甲等夜行动物似乎已经失去了这一能力，而其它进化为日间活跃的动物，依旧保留着发声能力，当然，就像你我一样。

1 lesser   

adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地

参考例句：

• Kept some of the lesser players out.不让那些次要的球员参加联赛。
• She has also been affected,but to a lesser degree.她也受到波及，但程度较轻。

2 alligator   

n.短吻鳄(一种鳄鱼)

参考例句：

• She wandered off to play with her toy alligator.她开始玩鳄鱼玩具。
• Alligator skin is five times more costlier than leather.鳄鱼皮比通常的皮革要贵5倍。

3 alligators   

n.短吻鳄( alligator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Two alligators rest their snouts on the water's surface. 两只鳄鱼的大嘴栖息在水面上。 来自辞典例句
• In the movement of logs by water the lumber industry was greatly helped by alligators. 木材工业过去在水上运输木料时所十分倚重的就是鳄鱼。 来自辞典例句

4 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

5 bellows   

n.风箱；发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的名词复数 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的第三人称单数 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫

参考例句：

• His job is to blow the bellows for the blacksmith. 他的工作是给铁匠拉风箱。 来自辞典例句
• You could, I suppose, compare me to a blacksmith's bellows. 我想，你可能把我比作铁匠的风箱。 来自辞典例句

6 collaborator   

n.合作者，协作者

参考例句：

• I need a collaborator to help me. 我需要个人跟我合作，帮我的忙。
• His collaborator, Hooke, was of a different opinion. 他的合作者霍克持有不同的看法。

7 statistical   

adj.统计的，统计学的

参考例句：

• He showed the price fluctuations in a statistical table.他用统计表显示价格的波动。
• They're making detailed statistical analysis.他们正在做具体的统计分析。

8 correlation   

n.相互关系，相关，关连

参考例句：

• The second group of measurements had a high correlation with the first.第二组测量数据与第一组高度相关。
• A high correlation exists in America between education and economic position.教育和经济地位在美国有极密切的关系。

9 acoustic   

adj.听觉的，声音的；(乐器)原声的

参考例句：

• The hall has a fine acoustic.这个大厅的传音效果很好。
• Animals use a whole rang of acoustic, visual,and chemical signals in their systems of communication.动物利用各种各样的听觉、视觉和化学信号来进行交流。

10 dwellers   

n.居民，居住者( dweller的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes. 城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They have transformed themselves into permanent city dwellers. 他们已成为永久的城市居民。 来自《简明英汉词典》