科学美国人60秒--意大利的一个恐龙宝库改写了古代地中海地区的历史、地理和进化史

A Treasure Trove¹ of Dinosaur² Bones in Italy Rewrites the Local Prehistoric³ Record

New fossils are changing a decades-old story about the species that roamed the Mediterranean⁴ 80 million years ago.

 

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

When he was little, Alessandro Chiarenza’s grandmother used to read him bedtime stories about dinosaurs⁵ and she would always tell him the same thing.

Alessandro Chiarenza: Oh you know, but these things were not living here. They were living in like America and in Asia, but not here in Italy.

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

Chiarenza: We have found plenty of dinosaur records from dinosaur fossils. We started in the past decades to record the footprints, but then most importantly, we started finding bones and now, now complete skeletons of dinosaurs.

Schwing: 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. The discovery is documented in the journal Scientific Reports.  And it once again upends the bedtime story, so to speak. [Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza et al, An Italian dinosaur Lagerst?tte reveals the tempo⁶ and mode of hadrosauriform body size evolution]

Chiarenza: Usually, you don’t find multiple complete individuals altogether. It’s something historically very rare.

Schwing: Back in 1994, in Trieste, a municipality in North Eastern Italy, scientists discovered Antonio - a small hadrosaur, or duck-billed dinosaur. The skeleton is about three and a half meters long—the size of a small SUV— and very well preserved.

Chiarenza: And one peculiar⁷ feature from this dinosaur stage was relatively⁸ small from the close cousins that they were inhabiting at the time in North America and Asia and these, these dinosaurs from these exotic lands would be quite big at the time. they’re basically coexisting with the T-Rex or relatives of the T-Rex. These were like the main predators⁹ of these animals and so they were quite big.

Schwing: When he was discovered, scientists theorized that Antonio was a victim of something called the “island rule.” 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. In fact this is how Antonio came to acquire his scientific name: Tethyshadros insularis. Insularis means “from an island,” according to Chiarenza. And as the old story goes, Antonia would have been a ‘dwarf’ species because of limited resources on that island.

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

Chiarenza: We know that if you cut a dinosaur skeleton, you can see some structure which is more comparable or analogous¹⁰ to what you see in a tree ring, so you count them and you can see how old these animals are. And we realized that the bigger skeleton, which was named Bruno, was older in age than the younger one, the skeleton of Antonio, the one that was smaller in size.

Schwing: Antonio is roughly the size of a small car SUV, but Bruno is a meter longer - closer to the size of a larger minivan.

Chiarenza: So Antonio is a complete skeleton and Bruno, it's 70 to 75 percent complete. There is another skeleton which is still on the ground and waits to be discovered to be completely recovered and prepared. And this is actually—it's nicknamed Rocco and is potentially even bigger than Bruno.

Schwing: The discovery of Bruno and Rocco have totally upended Antonio’s story. And so have other findings at the site.

Chiarenza: Dinosaurs were not the only fossil remains¹¹ from the area. We also find shrimps¹², plants. We find crocodiles. We find all sorts of dinosaurs which still are pending¹³ proper descriptions,  flying reptiles¹⁴ like pterosaurs.

Schwing: Chiarenza says he also imagines the region as a marginal marine¹⁵ area.

Chiarenza: There were probably more mainland connections, so you would have found this vegetated¹⁶ beach surrounded by like a little bit of higher ground, then more vegetated and forested areas that we're sort of going towards continental¹⁷ Europe. And you probably would have seen these dinosaurs like Tethyshadros potentially moving together, like in a group, maybe drinking in, you know, on a river side.

Schwing: The team also collected new data on the geology of the area. They redated the rocks to 80 million years ago, which is 10 million years older than thought.

Chiarenza: Which also led us to think that at the time, the paleogeography of the area was actually different. It wasn’t the islands archipelago that it was speculated before But it was actually a more continuous with larger, more extended land masses that probably we're offering up connections between not only the western part of Europe and the eastern part of Europe, but with also Asia and eventually Africa. So it probably was supporting more population of larger animals that had more available resources.

Schwing: So what comes next in the new version of this Italian dinosaur saga¹⁸? Chiarenza says he’s particularly interested in looking at what he and colleagues can learn from past changes in climate.

Chiarenza: Trying to learn which species might have been more sensitive to some climate change and trying to infer what did that might meant for their adaptations.

Schwing: He says the next chapter in this story will be to parse¹⁹ out how changes in climate over time drove the distribution of dinosaurs across Europe, into Asia and in other parts of the world.

For 60 Second Science, I’m Emily Schwing.

1 trove   

n.被发现的东西，收藏的东西

参考例句：

• He assembled a rich trove of Chinese porcelain.他收集了一批中国瓷器。
• The gallery is a treasure trove of medieval art.这个画廊是中世纪艺术的宝库。

2 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

3 prehistoric   

adj.（有记载的）历史以前的，史前的，古老的

参考例句：

• They have found prehistoric remains.他们发现了史前遗迹。
• It was rather like an exhibition of prehistoric electronic equipment.这儿倒像是在展览古老的电子设备。

4 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

5 dinosaurs   

n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西

参考例句：

• The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 tempo   

n.(音乐的)速度；节奏，行进速度

参考例句：

• The boss is unsatisfied with the tardy tempo.老板不满于这种缓慢的进度。
• They waltz to the tempo of the music.他们跟着音乐的节奏跳华尔兹舞。

7 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

8 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

9 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》

10 analogous   

adj.相似的；类似的

参考例句：

• The two situations are roughly analogous.两种情況大致相似。
• The company is in a position closely analogous to that of its main rival.该公司与主要竞争对手的处境极为相似。

11 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。

12 shrimps   

n.虾，小虾( shrimp的名词复数 )；矮小的人

参考例句：

• Shrimps are a popular type of seafood. 小虾是比较普遍的一种海味。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I'm going to have shrimps for my tea. 傍晚的便餐我要吃点虾。 来自辞典例句

13 pending   

prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的

参考例句：

• The lawsuit is still pending in the state court.这案子仍在州法庭等待定夺。
• He knew my examination was pending.他知道我就要考试了。

14 reptiles   

n.爬行动物，爬虫( reptile的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Snakes and crocodiles are both reptiles. 蛇和鳄鱼都是爬行动物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Birds, reptiles and insects come from eggs. 鸟类、爬虫及昆虫是卵生的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

15 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

16 vegetated   

v.过单调呆板的生活( vegetate的过去式和过去分词 )；植物似地生长；（瘤、疣等）长大

参考例句：

• The bacterial growth vegetated along. 细菌的生长繁殖很快。 来自互联网
• They vegetated the hills behind their house. 他们在他们的屋后的山上种植被。 来自互联网

17 continental   

adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的

参考例句：

• A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
• The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。

18 saga   

n.(尤指中世纪北欧海盗的)故事，英雄传奇

参考例句：

• The saga of Flight 19 is probably the most repeated story about the Bermuda Triangle.飞行19中队的传说或许是有关百慕大三角最重复的故事。
• The novel depicts the saga of a family.小说描绘了一个家族的传奇故事。

19 parse   

v.从语法上分析；n.从语法上分析

参考例句：

• I simply couldn't parse what you just said.我完全无法对你刚说的话作语法分析。
• It causes the parser to parse an NP.它调用分析程序分析一个名词短语。