VOA慢速英语2019 发现世界上最古老的真菌化石（在线收听）

World’s Oldest Fossil Fungus Found

Scientists made a big discovery in Canada, but it is something so small you need a microscope to see it.

科学家在加拿大有了一项重大发现，但它太小了，需要用显微镜才能看到。 

The scientists reported discovering what they believe is the remains of the oldest-known fungus, which could be up to 1 billion years old. They found it in the Arctic area of Canada and named it Ourasphaira giraldae.

科学家们报告说，他们发现了他们认为是已知的最古老的真菌残骸，这种真菌可能有10亿年的历史。他们是在加拿大的北极地区发现的它，他们将其命名为“史前真菌”。

A report on their find was published in the journal Nature.

他们的发现发表在《自然》杂志上。 

The multi-celled fungus is an ancestor to a large group of organisms, which today includes mushrooms, yeasts and molds. Ourasphaira lived where a river runs into a sea, about 900 million to 1 billion years ago. That is two times older than earlier scientific fungus finds.

这种多细胞真菌是一大群生物体的祖先，包括如今的生物体蘑菇、酵母和霉菌。大约在9亿到10亿年前，史前真菌生活在一条河流入海的地方。这比早期科学真菌发现的时间早两倍。

Until now, the oldest known fossil fungus, found in Scotland, was about 410 million years old.

迄今为止，在苏格兰发现的最古老的真菌化石大约有4.1亿年的历史。 

But some researchers are not yet sure that the fossil is truly a fungus. Mary Berbee, a scientist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, told Nature that there is "reason for believing it is real at this point." She added that, "more data would be really useful."

但一些研究人员还不确定这个化石是否真的是真菌。加拿大温哥华英属哥伦比亚大学的科学家玛丽·贝比告诉《自然》杂志，“有理由相信这是真的。”她还说，“获取更多数据对证明这一点来说非常有用。”

While you may not be happy to find mold growing in your home, or on your food, fungi do have important work. They help organic material to decompose, or break down.

虽然你可能不喜欢在家里或食物上发现霉菌，但真菌确实有重要的作用。它们可以帮助有机物分解或分解。

Fungi, the plural of fungus, are part of a large group of organisms called eukaryotes. The group includes both animals and plants, which have a clearly defined nucleus in their cells.

“Fungi”是“fungus（真菌）”的复数形式，是真核生物一大群有机体的一部分。这个群体包括动物和植物，它们的细胞中有一个明确的细胞核。

One important difference between fungi and plants is that fungi cannot make nutrients for themselves by using sunlight. This process is known as photosynthesis.

真菌和植物的一个重要区别是，真菌不能利用阳光为自己制造营养。这个过程被称为光合作用。 

Fungi and animals developed together in a close relationship on Earth. The researchers believe that because of this, microscopic animals may have lived at the same time as the Ourasphaira fungus. But, so far, the earliest animal fossils date back to about 635 million years ago.

真菌和动物在地球上有紧密的联系。研究人员认为，正因为如此，显微镜下的动物可能与我们的史前真菌生活在同一时期。但是，到目前为止，最早的动物化石可以追溯到大约6.35亿年前。

Corentin Loron is a paleobiologist with the University of Liège in Belgium, and the lead writer of the report. He said that while fungi are one of the more diverse groups of eukaryotes today, their ancient fossil record is "very scarce." In other words, there are not many of them.

卡尔汀·罗宏是比利时列日大学的古生物学家，也是这份报告的主要作者。他说，虽然真菌是当今最多样化的真核生物群体之一，但关于它们的古老化石记录“非常稀少”。换句话说，他们并不多。

The newest fossils were found in rock from the Northwest Territories of Canada. Scientific tests dated them back to the Proterozoic era. That was a time before complex life forms appeared on Earth. Loren said the fossil record from that period "is still a mysterious jigsaw puzzle, and we just added a new piece to it."

最新发现的化石是在加拿大西北地区的岩石中发现的。科学测试将它们追溯到元古代。那是地球上出现复杂生命形式之前的一段时间。罗宏说，那个时期的化石记录“仍然是一个神秘的拼图游戏，我们只是给它添加了一块新的。”

Researchers decided it was a fungus fossil in part because they identified the presence of a substance called chitin in Ourasphaira’s cell walls. Chitin also is found in creatures without backbones, like insects and crustaceans.

研究人员认为它在某种程度上来看是一块真菌化石，因为他们发现了一种叫做几丁质的物质存在于史前真菌的细胞壁中。几丁质也存在于没有脊椎的生物中，比如昆虫和甲壳类动物。

Loron said that, when talking about fungi, "we think of poisonous mushrooms or mold that grows on food." But he added that fungi are also well known to help productivity in fields, and they even help in making beer, or to help cows break down their food.

罗宏说，当谈到真菌时，“我们想到的是生长在食物上的有毒蘑菇或霉菌。”但他还说，众所周知，真菌还有助于提高农田生产力，甚至有助于酿造啤酒，或帮助奶牛分解食物。

Words in This Story

fungus – n. a group of spore-producing organisms that feed on organic material

data – n. facts and other information used for reasoning or making estimates

mold - n. a soft substance that grows on the surface of damp or rotting things

fossil – n. remains of a plant or animal which lived in ancient times

plural – adj. suggesting more than one

diverse – adj. different from each other

jigsaw puzzle – n. a puzzle made of many pieces that are cut into different shapes and can be put together to form a picture

crustacean – n. a kind of animal (such as a crab or lobster) that has several pairs of legs and a body made up of parts that are covered in a hard outer shell