英语听力：自然百科 阿根廷的化石天堂（在线收听） |
In the shadow of the Cerro Condor, a 600-meter-high limestone bluff in Patagonia, signs of life are few. But this wind-swept valley in Chubut province of Argentina is becoming one of the world's leading sites for paleontologists. Recent find showed that about 150 million years ago these vast Compañías, areas of red sands surrounding an almost forgotten village, were teeming with dinosaur life. Fossilized discoveries here over the past decade include one of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs ever found, and other bones that suggest an even bigger species. Fernando Novas is a lead researcher at Argentina's National Council for Scientific and Technical Investigation, and a National Geographic grantee.
"What is Patagonia showing us, a different history. The findings being done here change substantially what was previously known. The history tells and repeats once and again, referring to what we know from Europe, Asia, and North America. This is a different history, it's the history of Austral hemispheres, a history of what is called Gondwana, the super continent of the south."
With the continuous erosion by wind and water, exposing several geological layers, the Chubut region today is the perfect environment for unearthing fossils. Despite the potential, Argentine paleontology has only blossomed in the past decade. The team from the Museum of Paleontology Egidio Feruglio Intro You have discovered globally important fossils. Paleontologist Diego Pol says the discoveries presented at the museum are reshaping thinking on the anatomy of these creatures. For example, the Carnotaurus has short limbs and horns.
"This dinosaur Carnotaurus has a very rare particularity compared to whatever other types of dinosaurs we have come across, including dinosaurs that had been discovered in Madagascar, that is the presence of exterior limbs, very very reduced arms and the presence of two horns above its eyes. It's a unique characteristic of a carnivorous dinosaur and cannot be found in any other of this species， in any other place in the world."
The young team of paleontologists is convinced that many prizes remain among the region's uncharted mountains, and they are also retracing the footsteps of historic excavations. One of the paleontologists from the museum Intro You, Pablo Puerta, says they are revisiting a quarry where renowned American paleontologist made major discoveries more than 70 years ago.
"In 1935, George Geller Simpson, an American Paleontologist was working and found a series of very interesting vertebrate animals that are called Scarrittia. And our idea is to come back to this area， to try to find more of these species because the originals are in the American Museum of New York."
As the team continues their work, they hope more mysteries of the past will emerge from the barren mountain ridge shadows. |
| 原文地址：http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/zrbaike/2009/255503.html |