New dinosaur species unveiled 新種恐龍大揭密

A rendition of the new dinosaur species in its habitat. 本月十五日,巴西國家博物館公佈的照片.新種的恐龍生活在其棲息地的示意圖. PHOTO: AP

Fossils of the new species.本月十五日,巴西國家博物館公佈的照片,新品種的恐龍化石. PHOTO: AP

Paleontologists from Argentina and Brazil earlier this month unveiled a new giant dinosaur species that lived 88 million years ago in the Patagonia region of Argentina, where they found its fossils.

"It is one of the three largest dinosaur fossils ever discovered in the world and the most complete because we found 70 percent of its skeleton," said Argentina's Comahue National University Paleontology Center Director Jorge Calvo.

Belonging to the Titanosaur family, the newly discovered dinosaur measured 32 - 34m in length and lived exclusively in Patagonia.

It has been named Futalognkosaurus dukei, with the first name from the Mapuche language meaning "giant chief of dinosaurs," and the second in honor of the Duke Energy Argentina company that largely financed the digs.

The new dinosaur was found at the start of the excavation, in February 2000, alongside other animal and plant fossils in a 400m2 area.

The fossils allowed experts to "reconstruct an ecosystem of the upper Cretaceous period (from 97 to 66 million years ago) with unprecedented exactitude," Calvo said.

"The fact that most of the fossils were found in a limited area under a 0.5m rock layer makes us deduce that all those animals lived in the same epoch," he added.

The paleontologists also found fossils of fish, shellfish, at least two types of crocodile-like creatures and several dinosaurs, including the flying Pterosaur and carnivores like Megaraptor, with its 40cm claws.

They also found plant fossils of leaves showing the dominance of flowering plants at the time. (AFP)

阿根廷與巴西的古生物學家在本月初公佈了一個新發現的大型恐龍物種。這種恐龍八千八百萬年前生活在阿根廷的巴塔哥尼亞地區，這也是古生物學家發現恐龍化石的地方。

「這是現今全世界發現最大的三具恐龍化石之一，也是歷來保存得最完善的一具，因為我們找到牠百分之七十的骨骸，」阿根廷科瑪烏埃大學古生物中心主任喬治．卡佛說。

和雷龍同科的這種新發現的恐龍有三十二到三十四公尺長，僅出沒在巴塔哥尼亞地區。

這種恐龍被命名為「Futalognkosaurus dukei」，這是當地馬普切語。Futalognkosaurus的意思是「恐龍的大頭目」，dukei則是為了向大量資助挖掘工作經費的阿根廷杜克能源公司表達謝意。

這個新種恐龍化石是在二ＯＯＯ年二月份開挖初期出土的。在此四百平方公尺的範圍附近，也挖掘到了其他動植物的化石。

這次出土的化石讓專家們可以「空前精準的重建白堊紀後期（九千七百萬到六千六百萬年前）的生態系統」，卡佛說。

「事實上，這次出土的化石絕大多數是在一個半公尺厚的岩石層下方的特定範圍內發現的，因此我們推論這些生物都是生存在同一個時期，」卡佛接著說明。

這些古生物學家們也發現了魚類化石、貝類化石、兩種以上類似鱷魚的生物化石，和其他好幾種恐龍化石，包括會飛的翼龍和肉食性恐龍如：暴龍，還有其四十公分長的爪子。

他們也挖掘到植物葉片的化石，顯示開花植物當時已經出現。 （法新社／翻譯：袁星塵）

OUT LOUD 對話練習 Mitch: I volunteered to work on a dinosaur dig next year. Tork: Really! That's cool. Where are you going to go? Mitch: I'm going to Africa. Everything will be paid for, and I'm certain to have an adventure. Tork: That's for sure. But remember, dinosaur digs are no walk in the park. You'll probably have to work long hours in the hot sun. Mitch: I'll make sure to bring plenty of sunscreen. 米契：我自願加入明年一個挖掘恐龍遺跡的計畫。 托克：真的嗎？那真是太酷了！你會到哪裡去挖？ 米契：非洲。所有費用都不必自付，我肯定會有一番歷險。 托克：那當然。但是你要知道，挖掘恐龍遺跡不是一件輕鬆的差事，你可能得在烈日下工作好幾個鐘頭呢。 米契：我一定會帶一大堆防曬乳的。 walk in the park　輕鬆的差事 Something that's a walk in the park is very easy to do. For example, "Jose did poorly his first semester. He left home ready for a party, but soon discovered that college is no walk in the park." 我們形容某事就像是「walk in the park」表示這件事情做起來相當輕鬆。例如：「荷西第一個學期表現得很差。他抱著參加派對的心情離家，但是很快就發現大學並不像想像中那麼輕鬆」。

SAY WHAT? 說說看 species　物種 All animals are given a Latinized scientific name that is unique to their species. The name is used by scientists all over the world. A scientific name is formed by first writing an individual's genus and then its specific term. For example, the scientific name for humans is Homo sapiens. Scientific names are usually italicized or underlined, and the genus needs to be capitalized. Sometimes the genus is abbreviated. For example, Escherichia coli is commonly written as E. coli. 所有的動物都被賦予了一個專門代表其物種的拉丁學名，這種名稱是全世界科學家通用的。學名是由兩部份組合而成的，前面是屬名，後面是種名。例如：人類的學名就是Homo sapiens。 學名常以斜體或加底線來表示，屬名的字首要大寫。有時屬名會用縮寫表示，例如，我們通常用E. coli來表示大腸桿菌。

TODAY'S WORDS 今日單字 1. paleontologist n. 古生物學家 (gu3 sheng1 wu4 xue2 jia1) 例: Paleontologists look for dinosaur remains. (古生物學家們尋找恐龍的遺跡。) 2. fossil n. 化石 (hua4 shi2) 例: New fossils were found in Arizona last week. (新的化石上週在美國亞利桑那州出土。) 3. excavation n. 挖掘 (wa1 jue2) 例: I took part in an excavation for biology class. (我參加了生物課的考古挖掘活動。) 4. epoch n. 時期 (shi2 qi2) 例: We have to write down which epoch each of these dinosaurs lived in. (我們得寫出這些恐龍各自生存的時期。)