正文翻譯
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本文作者為樸茨茅斯大學(xué)古生物學(xué)教授大衛(wèi)·馬提爾
2020年3月11日

The head of a flying dinosaur that is hardly bigger than a bee hummingbird has been discovered in 99-million-year-old amber. The piece of polished amber, just 31mm by 20mm by 8.5mm, was found in Kachin Province of northern Myanmar, an area becoming increasingly well-known for its remarkable amber-encased fossils.

一種飛行恐龍的頭部被發(fā)現(xiàn)于有9900萬年歷史的琥珀中，體積幾乎還沒有一只蜂鳥大。這塊圓滑發(fā)亮的琥珀大小只有31毫米ⅹ20毫ⅹ8.5毫米，發(fā)現(xiàn)于緬甸北部的克欽邦，該地區(qū)因其不同尋常的、包裹于琥珀中的化石而越來越為世人所知。

（譯注：克欽邦是緬甸北部的自治邦，首都在密支那，與云南省接壤，克欽族與我國景頗族為同一民族，曾為南詔國/大理國領(lǐng)土）

Oculudentavis has a long slender beak, a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth and massive eyes. Unlike most fossils, in which the original material is replaced by other minerals, the skull still appears to be composed of actual bone, although its microstructure and possible cell content have yet to be analysed.

寬婭眼齒鳥有著長而尖細(xì)的喙，滿嘴尖利的牙齒以及碩大的眼睛。和大部分化石不同，它們原本的物質(zhì)會被其他礦物置換掉，看起來這具顱骨仍是由真正的骨骼組成的，雖然它的微觀結(jié)構(gòu)以及可能的細(xì)胞內(nèi)含物還沒有經(jīng)過分析。

（圖解：寬婭眼齒鳥的藝術(shù)效果圖）

Some of the skin of the palate and the tongue is also preserved, including the small pointed papillae on its surface. In modern passerine birds such as the the robin, these tongue bumps are directed backwards and prevent prey escaping from the mouth.

上顎和舌頭部位的一部分皮膚也保存了下來，包括其表面上細(xì)小的乳頭狀突起。在諸如知更鳥的現(xiàn)代雀形目鳥類中，這些舌上凸起是倒著長的，以防獵物從嘴里逃脫。

There do not appear to be any feathers preserved, but some of the organic material decayed to produce what is now a yucky mess (who would think that such things could be fossilised?) Sadly the rest of the animal’s body is not preserved. Perhaps it exists in another amber fragment awaiting discovery.

似乎并沒有保存下來任何羽毛，但有一部分腐爛的（身體）組織物質(zhì)，到現(xiàn)在成了一堆惡心的亂糟糟的玩意兒（誰能想到這種東西都可以變成化石？）遺憾的是，這只動物的其他身體部分沒有保存下來。也許存在于另一塊等著人們發(fā)現(xiàn)的琥珀碎片中。

The researchers point out that animals that evolve to become much smaller tend to come from isolated environments such as islands. For examples, there were once dwarf mammoths on Crete, Sardinia and Cyprus. Coincidentally, geologists have suggested that the Myanmar amber deposits were formed on an island that was part of a volcanic arc on the margins of the ancient Thethys Ocean.

研究者指出，那些在進(jìn)化中變得小得多的動物往往來自隔絕的環(huán)境，比如島嶼。舉例來說，在克里特島、撒丁島和塞浦路斯，一度存在過侏儒猛犸象。巧合的是，已經(jīng)有地理學(xué)家們認(rèn)為緬甸的琥珀礦床是形成于一個島嶼上的，后者是位于古特提斯海邊緣的火山島弧的一部分。?

（譯注：特提斯海是位于北方勞亞古陸和南方岡瓦納古陸之間的古海洋，現(xiàn)代地中海是特提斯海的殘留海域）

The discovery of Oculudentavis is all the more fascinating because it was found in amber. Almost all fossils are formed from the hard remains of animals and plants: bones, teeth, shells and wood. But the amber has preserved some of the soft tissues of the dinosaur, making it a very unlikely fossil.

寬婭眼齒鳥的發(fā)現(xiàn)是更為迷人的，因為它被發(fā)現(xiàn)于琥珀之中。幾乎所有的化石都是由動物和植物的硬質(zhì)遺骸形成的：骨骼、牙齒、甲殼以及木頭。但這塊琥珀把這只恐龍的一部分軟組織保存下來了，這就使其成為了一件不太可能出現(xiàn)的化石。

（圖解：琥珀化石）

Amber starts off as a sticky liquid resin oozing from wounds on trees. But as volatile chemicals evaporate from its surface, the resin hardens into lumps that take some hammering to remove from the tree. This means it is even more unlikely that a dinosaur would get preserved amber as most dinosaurs are large and the largest piece of amber ever discovered weighs a mere 15kg.

琥珀一開始是一種帶粘性的液態(tài)樹脂，是從樹的傷口中滲出來的。但是隨著帶有揮發(fā)性的化學(xué)物質(zhì)從其表面蒸發(fā)出去，這些樹脂硬化，成為了團(tuán)塊，需要反復(fù)敲打才能將其從樹上除去。這就意味著，恐龍保存在琥珀之中就更不可能了，因為大部分的恐龍體型很大，而迄今發(fā)現(xiàn)的最大的一塊琥珀，重量只有15公斤。

Not even Michael Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park, could conceive of a dinosaur in amber. Instead his fairy-tale quest to resurrect dinosaurs envisaged a blood-sucking mosquito with a belly full of dino blood and dino DNA becoming trapped in the sticky resin.

甚至連《侏羅紀(jì)公園》的創(chuàng)作者邁克爾·克里頓都構(gòu)想不出琥珀中的恐龍。在他的大片中尋求復(fù)活恐龍時，他的設(shè)想反而是一只吸血的蚊子，肚子里裝滿了恐龍血，而恐龍的DNA留存在這種粘性的樹脂中。

But not all dinosaurs were large, and one hapless Oculudentavis khaungraae, the smallest of them all, found itself in the wrong place at the wrong time in a forest in what is now Myanmar. We do not know if this little dinosaur had wings and flew into the resin, or if it became accidentally stuck (presumably by its feathers) while hopping through the branches of a resiniferous tree.

但并非所有的恐龍體型都很大，而一只倒霉的寬婭眼齒鳥（是它們中間體型最小的）在錯誤的時間，讓自己置身于在今天是緬甸的一片森林中的錯誤地點。我們不清楚這只小恐龍是否有翅膀，是否飛進(jìn)了這團(tuán)樹脂之中，或是跳躍著穿過一顆能產(chǎn)生樹脂的樹時一不小心被樹枝卡?。ê芸赡苁强ㄗ×怂挠鹈┝?。

（圖解：Oculudentavis顱骨的CT掃描圖）

The fossilised remains of Oculudentavis will be rich in all sorts of chemical decay products that can often be traced back to original biomolecules. But unfortunately it is doubtful that any DNA remains. DNA is such a delicate molecule that it rarely survives more than a few thousand years in humans, perhaps as much as 17,000 years in other animals and just maybe around a million years in fossilised bacteria.

這些寬婭眼齒鳥的化石殘骸會富含各種各樣的經(jīng)化學(xué)分解的產(chǎn)物，后者經(jīng)?？梢宰匪莸皆嫉纳锓肿?。但不幸的是，是否還能留下DNA是存疑的。DNA是如此脆弱的一種分子，在人類中罕有能存活超過幾千年的，或許在其他動物中能存活長達(dá)17000年，在已成為化石的細(xì)菌中能存活一百萬年上下。

Oculudentavis actually isn’t the first dinosaur to be found in amber. In 2016, researchers reported a piece of amber also from Myanmar with the tail of feathered dinosaur. The authors of this paper speculated that one day a complete dinosaur might be found in amber. Well, we now have a head and a tail. It’s just a body that is missing.

事實上，寬婭眼齒鳥并不是第一種發(fā)現(xiàn)于琥珀中的恐龍。2016年時，研究人員上報了一塊琥珀，它也產(chǎn)自緬甸，內(nèi)含有羽毛恐龍的尾巴。據(jù)這篇論文的作者推測，有朝一日，可能會在琥珀中發(fā)現(xiàn)一只完整的恐龍。好吧，我們現(xiàn)在有了個頭，有了個尾。只缺個身子了。

My hope though is for a pterodactyl to be found in amber. I don’t care how big or how small it is – I just want to know what they really looked like.

但我的希望是，能在琥珀中找到一只翼手龍。我不在乎它有多大多小，我只想知道它們的真身是個什么模樣。

評論翻譯
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.ltaaa.com 翻譯：yzy86 轉(zhuǎn)載請注明出處

1、Love how cool amber is.
Prehistoric pine sap, just seems crazy.

我喜歡琥珀的酷勁兒。
史前的松樹汁，看起來真是太瘋狂了。

2、a dinosaur species which is very close to the present day bird, but not quite there yet. transitional species. probably had a beak, feathers, and looked like a bird, but still retained some dinosaur-ish traits - like the tiny teeth this one has.

一種非常接近現(xiàn)今鳥類的恐龍，但又不盡然。屬于過渡型物種。也許擁有喙、羽毛，而且看起來很像鳥類，但仍然留有一些恐龍的特征，比如這只擁有的細(xì)小牙齒。

（譯注：此處重現(xiàn)了電影場景和當(dāng)時的背景音樂）

5、This things skull is literally the length of the width of your thumb7

這家伙的顱骨還真只有你拇指寬度那么長。

6、Okay but like in all honesty, is it a new dinosaur? Or is it just an infant pterosaur? I feel like that’s highly looked over between some paleontologists

好吧，不過說實話，這真的是一種新的恐龍嗎？有沒有可能它只是一只翼龍寶寶？
我感覺這個問題在一些古生物學(xué)家中間會得到高度重視的。