新奇事件簿 未來會出現(xiàn)綿羊大的老鼠

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Rats that are the size of sheep might be a good horror movie story. However, scientists from the University of Leicester in England say that in the future, there could really be giant rats on the Earth. They could be as big as sheep and weigh up to 80kg. Rats are spreading all over the Earth. They are now the strongest animals on many small islands. One of the reasons for this is that they travel on ships and relocate to areas that never had rats before. Another reason is that many larger animals are becoming extinct, so there are fewer animals that might kill rats. Researcher Dr Jan Zalasiewicz said: "Given enough time, rats could probably grow to be…the world's largest rodent."

像綿羊那么大的老鼠或許是很好的恐怖電影主題。然而，來自英格蘭萊斯特大學的科學家表示，未來地球上確實會出現(xiàn)這種巨型老鼠。這些老鼠的體型像綿羊那么大，體重達80千克。目前老鼠在全球各地肆虐，是許多小島上最強大的動物。其中一個原因就是它們搭乘船只遷移到以前從來沒有老鼠的地方。另外一個原因是許多更大的動物滅絕，可以消滅老鼠的動物減少。研究人員Jan Zalasiewicz博士表示：“如果有足夠的時間，老鼠可能會成為世界上最大的嚙齒動物。”

Dr Zalasiewicz said rats are one of the best examples of a species that we have spread around the world, and have successfully adapted to many of the new environments. He said: "There will be future thin rats, future fat rats, slow and heavy rats, fast and ferocious rats, probably future aquatic rats - the list goes on." After the dinosaurs died out, many small animals slowly grew bigger and bigger. The same thing could happen with rats if there are no animals left that hunt and kill them. Dr Zalasiewicz also believes that "super-rats" will start killing other species to make them extinct. This will have a big impact on food chains. He did not say what humans would do about giant rats running around everywhere.

Zalasiewicz博士表示，老鼠是物種在世界各地傳播，并成功適應(yīng)諸多新環(huán)境的最佳案例之一。他表示：“未來會有比較瘦的老鼠，比較胖的老鼠，行動遲緩，身材笨重的老鼠，行動迅速，性情兇猛的老鼠，也可能有適合水中生活的老鼠，各種各樣的老鼠都有可能。”恐龍滅絕以后，許多小型動物慢慢地越長越大。如果沒有動物獵捕老鼠，老鼠的體型也會越來越大。Zalasiewicz博士還相信，“超級老鼠”將會開始消滅其他動物，致使它們滅絕。這會對食物鏈產(chǎn)生重大影響。他沒有言明人類應(yīng)該怎樣如何在世界各地肆虐的巨型老鼠。