第2236期:Remains of a Rare Flying Reptile Dug Up in Australia

Millions of years ago, a huge and powerful hunter flew in the skies above a former sea in what is now Australia. Its large mouth and long, pointed teeth captured fish and other sea life.
几百万年前，一种巨大的强大猎手在如今的澳大利亚上空的一个古老海洋上空飞行。它的大嘴和长而尖的牙齿捕捉鱼类和其他海洋生物。

Scientists in Australia recently announced the discovery of fossil remains of the animal, named Haliskia peterseni. They said the fossils are the most complete remains of any pterosaur ever unearthed in Australia. The creature lived alongside dinosaurs during the Cretaceous Period, the researchers said.
澳大利亚的科学家最近宣布发现了这种被命名为Haliskia peterseni的动物的化石遗骸。他们表示，这些化石是澳大利亚迄今为止发现的最完整的翼龙遗骸。研究人员说，这种生物生活在白垩纪时期，与恐龙共存。

Haliskia means "sea phantom." The researchers said Haliskia’s wings measured 4.6 meters across from end to end. The animal lived about 100 million years ago.
Haliskia的意思是“海洋幽灵”。研究人员表示，Haliskia的翅膀从一端到另一端长4.6米。这种动物生活在大约一亿年前。

"The Eromanga Sea was a massive inland sea covering large parts of Australia when this pterosaur was alive," said Adele Pentland, a doctoral student in paleontology at Curtin University in Australia. Pentland was the lead writer of a study, which appeared recently in the publication Scientific Reports.
“埃罗曼加海是一个覆盖澳大利亚大部分地区的巨大内陆海洋，当时这种翼龙生活在这个海洋上空，”澳大利亚科廷大学古生物学博士生阿黛尔·彭特兰德说。彭特兰德是最近在《科学报告》期刊上发表的一项研究的主要作者。

The thin bones of pterosaurs do not easily turn into fossils. For Haliskia, only 22 percent of the skeleton was unearthed. The bones included complete lower jaws, part of the upper jaw, throat bones, 43 teeth, vertebrae, ribs, bones from both wings and part of one leg.
翼龙的薄骨头不容易变成化石。对于Haliskia，只挖掘出了22%的骨架。这些骨头包括完整的下颌骨、部分上颌骨、喉骨、43颗牙齿、椎骨、肋骨、两翼的骨头和一条腿的部分骨头。

Pentland said the researchers believe the muscle in the animal’s mouth, called the tongue, was very strong, based on the length of its throat bones.
彭特兰德说，研究人员根据其喉骨的长度认为这种动物嘴里的肌肉，也就是舌头，非常强壮。

"In many other pterosaurs, the throat bones are 30 percent or 60 percent the length of the lower jaw, whereas in Haliskia the throat bones are 70 percent the length of the lower jaw,” Pentland said.
“在许多其他翼龙中，喉骨的长度是下颌骨长度的30%或60%，而在Haliskia中，喉骨长度是下颌骨长度的70%。”彭特兰德说。

Haliskia is a little larger and older, by about 5 million years, than the closely related Australian pterosaur Ferrodraco. Scientists announced its discovery in 2019. Haliskia's remains are more complete than those of Ferrodraco.
Haliskia比密切相关的澳大利亚翼龙Ferrodraco大一些，年龄也大了大约500万年。科学家们在2019年宣布了Ferrodraco的发现。Haliskia的遗骸比Ferrodraco的更完整。

Both animals belong to a pterosaur group called anhanguerians known from remains found in China, the United States, Brazil, Britain, Spain and Morocco. The three other named Australian pterosaurs are known only from partial jaw bones, Pentland said.
这两种动物都属于一种叫做anhanguerians的翼龙类群，已在中国、美国、巴西、英国、西班牙和摩洛哥发现了它们的遗骸。彭特兰德说，另外三种命名的澳大利亚翼龙仅从部分颌骨中得知。

The Haliskia individual's body ended up buried under sediment at the bottom of the Eromanga Sea.
这只Haliskia的身体最终被埋在埃罗曼加海底的沉积物下。

Pterosaurs were the first of three vertebrate groups to fly, appearing about 230 million years ago. Birds appeared about 150 million years ago and bats appeared around 50 million years ago.
翼龙是三大飞行脊椎动物群中最早出现的，出现在大约2.3亿年前。鸟类出现在大约1.5亿年前，而蝙蝠则出现在大约5000万年前。

Pentland said the Haliskia discovery is also important because for many years experts believed Australia had very few fossils from the age of dinosaurs.
彭特兰德说，Haliskia的发现也很重要，因为多年来专家们认为澳大利亚的恐龙时代化石非常少。