VOA慢速英语2016 小型飞龙与猫同大

AS IT IS 2016-09-04 Small, Flying Dinosaur 1 Was Size of a Cat 小型飞龙与猫同大

Researchers are excited about the discovery of what they think is a new species of flying dinosaur that was about the size of a cat.

研究人员最近有了惊喜的发现:他们认为，一种新物种——会飞的恐龙体型与猫的大小差不多。

The partial remains 2 of the small dinosaur were discovered in 2009 in British Columbia, Canada.

2009年在加拿大英属哥伦比亚发现了该小型恐龙部分遗体。

The creature was a kind of pterosaur. Pterosaurs were vertebrates, meaning they had backbones 3, and likely covered with fur or hair. The remains included evidence of wings, so this pterosaur could fly. Researchers believe it lived about 77 million years ago.

这种生物属于翼龙的一种。翼龙属于脊椎动物，意味着它们有脊骨，很可能长有毛皮或是毛发。这部分遗骸证明了该动物有翅膀，因此这种翼龙可能会飞。研究人员认为这种翼龙生活在7700万年之前。

Elizabeth Martin-Silverstone is the lead writer of a research paper about the flying dinosaur. She attends the University of Southampton in Britain.

Elizabeth Martin-Silverstone是关于会飞恐龙的研究论文的主撰写人。她在英国南安普敦大学上大学。

Martin-Silverstone said the discovery is an exciting moment in the study of dinosaurs 4. “The hollow bones of pterosaurs are … poorly preserved,” she said. “This suggests that a small pterosaur could very rarely be preserved, but not necessarily that they didn’t exist.”

Martin-Silverstone表示这项发现是恐龙研究领域方面一项惊喜的发现。“翼龙中空的骨头保存的不好。”她说道。“这表明不太可能有保存完好的小翼龙，但这不能表示它们就不存在。”

The flying dinosaur described in the paper had a wingspan of over one meter. Pterosaurs of that time were much larger with wingspans from four to 11 meters, researchers said.

该文章中记载的翼龙翼展有一米多长。研究人员则表示，那个时候的翼龙翼展相对更大，应为4米到11米左右。

The largest known pterosaur was as big as a modern giraffe. It had a wingspan the size of a small airplane.

已知的翼龙中最大的与现在的长劲鹿不相上下。其翼展与小型飞机的翼展差不多。

The remains of this dinosaur were found in small pieces. Researchers are not yet able to decide if they represent an unknown species. Yet the researchers were able to say the small pterosaur belonged to a group of short-winged, toothless pterosaurs called azhdarchoids.

发现的恐龙遗骸都呈碎片状。研究人员还不知道这些遗骸是否能够表明这是一种未知的物种。研究人员也不能够确定小型翼龙是否属于azhdarchoids，即短翅无齿恐龙。

“The specimen 5 is far from the prettiest or most complete pterosaur fossil you’ll ever see, but it’s still an exciting and significant find,”said Mark Witton of the University of Portsmouth.

“这个样本远不是最漂亮的，也不是你见过的最完整的，但这仍然是一项惊人的重要发现。”朴茨茅斯大学的Mark Witton表示。

Witton is a pterosaur expert. He noted 6, “It’s rare to find pterosaur fossils at all because their skeletons were lightweight and easily damaged once they died. The small ones are the rarest of all. But luck was on our side and several bones of this animal survived the preservation 7 process.”

Witton是翼龙专家。他注意到：“发现翼龙化石几乎不太可能，因为它们的骨骼非常轻，一旦死亡，骨骼就特别容易破碎。这种小型的骨骼是所有骨骼中最罕见的。但我们非常幸运，该动物的几个骨骼都幸存了下来。”

He added that the creature discovered was full grown.

他补充道，发现的这个生物是发育完全的。

The paper was published in the Royal Society journal Open Science.

该文章发表在皇家学会杂志《开放科学》上。

Words in This Story

species – n. a group of animals or plants that are similar and can produce young animals or plants

dinosaur – n. one of many animals that lived on Earth millions of years ago

wingspan – n. the distance from the tip of one wing of a bird to the tip of the other wing

giraffe – n. a very tall African animal that has an extremely long neck and legs

specimen – n. something (such as an animal or plant) collected as an example of a particular kind of thing

fossil – n. something (such as a leaf, skeleton, or footprint) that is from a plant or animal which lived in ancient times and that you can see in some rocks