在南極洲發(fā)現(xiàn)的尼斯湖水怪

在南極洲發(fā)現(xiàn)的尼斯湖水怪

We're no closer to confirming the existence of the Loch Ness Monster, but what may be its long-lost twin has been discovered on the other side of the world.

我們離確認尼斯湖水怪的存在還差得遠，但在地球的另一端發(fā)現(xiàn)了它失蹤已久的孿生兄弟。

Paleontologists have found the fossilised remains of an enormous marine reptile on Antarctica's Seymour Island. It measures 11m from snout to tail, and likely weighed almost 15 tonnes when it was alive millions of years ago.

古生物學家在南極洲西摩島上發(fā)現(xiàn)了一種大型海洋爬行動物的化石殘骸。它從鼻子到尾巴有11米長，可能在數(shù)百萬年前活著的時候重達15噸。

The creature is believed to be an elasmosaurus, a kind of plesiosaur that lived in what's now known as North America during the Cretaceous Era between 93 million and 70 million years ago.

這種生物被認為是依拉絲莫龍，一種蛇頸龍，在9300萬到7000萬年前的白堊紀時期，生活在現(xiàn)在的北美洲。

Scientists say it's long-awaited proof that such creatures once swam in our oceans.

科學家表示，這是人們期待已久的證據(jù)，證明這種生物曾經(jīng)在我們的海洋中游動過。

"For years it was a mystery...we didn't know if they were elasmosaurus or not," José O'Gorman of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina told National Geographic.

阿根廷國家科學技術(shù)研究委員會的喬斯·奧戈爾曼對國家地理說：“多年來，這一直是個謎……我們不知道它們是不是依拉絲莫龍。”

"They were some kind of weird plesiosaurs that nobody knew."

“他們是一種奇怪的蛇頸龍，沒有人知道。”

Other Cretaceous fossils have been found in Antarctica before, but this discovery is one of the most complete fossils ever recovered there.

此前在南極洲也發(fā)現(xiàn)過其他白堊紀化石，但這一發(fā)現(xiàn)是在那里發(fā)現(xiàn)的最完整的化石之一。

The recovery of Nessie's lookalike has been three decades in the making. The huge fossil was first detected in 1989, but the expedition team didn't have the resources to dig it up.

尼斯湖水怪的復原工作已經(jīng)進行了30年。這塊巨大的化石于1989年首次被發(fā)現(xiàn)，但探險隊沒有足夠的資源把它挖出來。

It took three separate return trips to Antarctica in 2005, 2012 and 2017 to fully extricate, with scientists collecting 800kg of fossilised bones in the process.

科學家們分別于2005年、2012年和2017年三次返回南極洲，在此過程中收集了800公斤的骨骼化石。

A study into the fossil, funded by Argentina's National Antarctic Directorate and the Argentine Antarctic Institute, will be published in the Cretaceous Researchjournal in October.

由阿根廷國家南極理事會和阿根廷南極研究所資助的一項關(guān)于這塊化石的研究將于10月發(fā)表在《白堊紀研究雜志》上。